Pimp My PC: Character Optimization Workshop

[N/A]

AA asked me to look over his Claremont kid, Edge.

For the most part, this seems like an excellent support character, who's also packing some heat of his own. A few details leap out at me:

With so few Skills and no melee attacks, I assume the Abilities were purchased with character concept in mind.

The saving throws are a little low for a PL10. But with his vast reservoir of Hero Points, I can understand why you'd be comfortable shaving a few points in this area.

With his lack of melee attack powers and STR 12 (+1), I would shift more of his Attack bonus into Attack Focus (Ranged). This would free up some points for elsewhere.

Skills: Read the article. I would bump his Knowledge (History) to +10, and his Bluff to +14-15 at least. That gets more use out of that Distract feat, and lets him Feint for his allies more consistently (see below).

Stealth +6 isn't going to fool anyone. I would either raise this to +10 or discard it entirely.

I would take his Inspire to rank 4, maybe rank 5. You have to spend a Hero Point for it, so it might as well be a truly game-changing event.

His attack power is "Blast" with the Touch-range flaw. Shouldn't this just be listed as a Strike, or the base effect (Damage)?

His attack power should probably be Subtle, unless there's some kind of obvious effect (like a light show) that points to him as the culprit for these "mysterious accidents." His Probability Control power, on the other hand, is a Reaction/Passive effect, and is thus not noticeable by default.

Good choices on the power purchases. Being able to spend a Hero Point on your ally's behalf is a lot better than being able to just hand them one, to waste as they see fit. Fortune is awesome, Jinx sucks. Glad you realized that.

Tactics

Since neither his Luck Control nor his Probability Control require any action on his part, he can use his Standard Action each round in one of the following ways:

• [*:32o8kqcu]Leadership: Being Stunned or Fatigued hurts his allies a lot more than it hampers Edge, and he has Hero Points to spare. If it's a choice between him using his Standard Action for anything else or freeing up one of his allies, he should choose the latter.
  [*:32o8kqcu]Distract: Increase his Bluff skill, and this is probably the most powerful tool in his arsenal (unless the enemy is immune to Interaction Skills).
  [*:32o8kqcu]Feint + Setup: Since his only "real" attack is an Area (provides a Reflex Save), Edge doesn't benefit much from a Feint on his own. But his allies benefit very much. If you buy up his Bluff high enough, it might be worth it to do this as a Move Action and cause an accident with his Standard.
  [*:32o8kqcu]Accidents: This is a good enough attack. But before using this power, ask yourself if the team as a whole would benefit more from one of the actions listed above. If he's alone, of course, it's a no-brainer.
  [*:32o8kqcu]Peashooter: Using that blaster puts him at about PL7. It should be an absolute last resort.

[N/A]

With the new Rollover Power Points announcement, Grimalkin will now have +10PP to work with. Doctor Archeville specifically asked us to spend these bonus PP on something to round out the character rather than bumping combat traits up to the new PL caps. So I invested the points in saving throws and skills. At 173PP, she'll technically be PL11 (almost PL12), but she's PL10 in combat (for now).

:arrow: I increased Fortitude Save to +8, Reflex Save to +12, and Will Save to +8. Since she's characterized by her catlike nature, it made sense for Reflex to be her highest save, with the others lagging behind a bit. Her exotic saves still average out to higher than any of the sample PL10 characters in the book, or any member of the Freedom League (PL10-12).

:arrow: I rounded out her Skills.

• [*:vuxwwis6]I raised the ranks in Acrobat, Bluff, and Stealth to their PL caps. Of all the active characters, she's probably now the best there is at what she does.
  [*:vuxwwis6]I forgot the other reason I gave her the Agile Climber feat - you have to have at least 5 ranks in Climb, or you're still flat-footed while climbing with Wall-Crawling. Since Grim is so heavily dependent on her Dodge bonus, that's unacceptable.
  I gave her 7 ranks total in Climb, which cost 1.75PP, and gives her redundancy in case her power fails. A second rank of Wall-Crawling, which would also let her climb without being flat-footed, would cost 2PP - slightly more, and she doesn't have the redundancy of a high Climb skill, but it would also let her climb at full speed, instead of the 1/2 speed of Wall-Crawling 1 (normal Climb is 1/4 speed).
  [*:vuxwwis6]Notice and Search both raised to +15 helps her take more advantage of her Super-Senses, makes her more difficult to surprise (thus decreasing the chance that she'll be caught flat-footed), and lets her take 10 on Search checks to hit DC25, the highest difficulty on the Search chart ("Find a well-hidden secret compartment or trap, or an extremely obscure clue").
  [*:vuxwwis6]With Knowledge (Streetwise) raised to +10, she can take 10 and hit DC20, answering most "difficult questions" that will come up. If she rolls, or has the time and resources to take 20 (usually about an hour), she can potentially hit DC30, answering pretty much anything.
  [*:vuxwwis6]With Sleight of Hand raised to +16, she can take 10 with Skill Mastery, automatically taking something from, or planting something on, her target, and requiring a DC26 Notice check for anyone to spot her. If she has 10 minutes, she can also take 20 and conceal something on her person so well that it would take a DC36 Search check to find.

Grimalkin

Power Level: 10

Tradeoffs: +2 Attack / -2 Damage, +2 Defense / -2 Toughness

Abilities [40PP]

Strength 16 (+3)

Dexterity 26 (+8)

Constitution 18 (+4)

Intelligence 12 (+1)

Wisdom 12 (+1)

Charisma 26/16 (+8/+3)

Combat [24PP]

Initiative +12

Attack +6 Base, +10 Melee, +12 Claws

Defense +12 (+6 Base, +6 Dodge Focus], +3 Flat-Footed

Damage +3 Unarmed (+5 Sneak Attack), +6 Claws (+8 Sneak Attack)

Grapple +18

Knockback 4, 2 Flat-Footed

Saving Throws [15PP]

Toughness +8, +4 Flat-Footed

Fortitude +8 (+4 CON, 4PP)

Reflex +12 (+8 DEX, 4PP)

Will +8 (+1 WIS, 7PP)

Skills [28PP = 112 Ranks]

Acrobat 16 (+24) (Skill Mastery)

Bluff 16 (+24/+19) (Skill Mastery)

Climb 7 (+15)

Diplomacy 2 (+10/+5)

Disguise 0 (+3, +28 Morph)

Gather Information 2 (+10/+5)

Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 4 (+5)

Knowledge (Pop Culture) 4 (+5)

Knowledge (Streetwise) 9 (+10)

Notice 14 (+15)

Search 14 (+15)

Sleight of Hand 8 (+16) (Skill Mastery)

Stealth 16 (+24) (Skill Mastery)

Feats [36PP]

Acrobatic Bluff

Agile Climber

Attack Focus (Melee) 4

Attack Specialization (Claws)

Connected

Contacts

Defensive Attack

Defensive Roll 4

Distract (Bluff)

Dodge Focus 6

Elusive Target

Evasion

Grappling Finesse

Improved Initiative

Move-By Action

Luck 2

Power Attack

Setup

Skill Mastery (Acrobat, Bluff, Sleight of Hand, Stealth)

Sneak Attack

Takedown Attack 2

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (Audio)

Powers [38PP]

Immunity 2 (Aging, Cold) [2PP]

Glamour 5 (10PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 4) [14PP]

Base Power: Morph 5 (Any Humanoid, +25 Disguise) [10PP]

Alternate Power: Concealment 4 (All Visual Senses, Feats: Close Range, Selective, Extras: Affects Others, Flaws: Blending) [10PP]

Alternate Power: Elongation 1 (5ft) + Insubstantial 1 (Liquid) + Super-Movement 2 (Slithering, Water-Walking) [10PP]

Alternate Power: Emotion Control 10 (Extras: Area, Flaws: Limited [Fear], Sense-Dependent [Vision]) [10PP]

Alternate Power: Enhanced Charisma 10 [10PP]

Leaping 2 (x5) [2PP]

Strike 3 (Claws, Feats: Alternate Power, Improved Critical 2, Incurable, Mighty) [8PP]

Alternate Power: Create Object 3 (Feats: Precise, Subtle, Extras: Duration [Continuous], Flaws: Range [Touch]) [6PP]

Super-Movement 2 (Slow Fall, Wall-Crawling) [4PP]

Super-Senses 8 (Normal Hearing [Extras: Accurate 2, Extended], Normal Olfactory [Extras: Acute, Extended, Tracking], Normal Vision [Extras: Counters Obscure 2 {Darkness}]) [8PP]

Drawbacks [-8PP]

Vulnerability (Iron, Frequency: Uncommon, Intensity: Major [+50% DC]) [-2PP]

Weakness (Iron, Frequency: Common, Intensity: Moderate, -1 CON / minute [10 rounds]) [-6PP]

Abilities 40 + Combat 24 + Saving Throws 15 + Skills 28 + Feats 36 + Powers 38 - Drawbacks 8 = 173 Power Points

[Dr Archeville]

No Shrinking + Flight "Sprite Form" AP?

[Heritage]

No Shrinking + Flight "Sprite Form" AP?

I actually asked him to drop it; it doesn't quite fit this build, plus it looks like I could Stunt it as an AP if I really needed it. The Extra Effort means it wouldn't be something she does every day

[Heritage]

I just thought of something in regards to this build Grimalkin, which might not have been adaquitly covered in pervious builds, either. Grim owns almost no clothing, as she normally just creates is for herself out of her own glamour. In the past, this was basically covered under Morph or Shapeshift while she was awake, and not an issue when she was asleep. However now with Morph being part of an array, I could see some, uh, wardrobe malfunctions cropping up. :?

Would Quick Change be a good solution? It would sort of mean she always holds a little glamour in reserve to create her costume. If so, maybe I can scrounge up an extra pp from her quiz for next month.

[Dr Archeville]

Couldn't she use the Create Object ability to create clothing?

[Heritage]

Couldn't she use the Create Object ability to create clothing?

She can easily make something as complex as clothing, but since she can only make three objects, that would be like two shoes, a jumpsuit and nothing else. She mostly uses Create Object to make fake IDs and larger props for her disguises, like a suitcase or umbrella, or things she might have to hand over to another person.

[Geez3r]

Benefit: Not Nakeds.

Or, we could always just say you have enough mojo left over to cloth yourself with the glamor, just not able to change it unless you swap to that selection in the array. Really, I don't feel like it's a good idea to character a character power points so that they have pants. It's one of those things I would just gloss over.

[Dr Archeville]

I agree, even with her Complication (Struggling). That's Peter Parker level of poverty, not Maxx level of poverty. Could say she has a set of faerie clothing that shifts with her, like the Morphic Molecule suits the Atom Family has.

[Heritage]

I agree, even with her Complication (Struggling). That's Peter Parker level of poverty, not Maxx level of poverty. Could say she has a set of faerie clothing that shifts with her, like the Morphic Molecule suits the Atom Family has.

It's not part of her Struggling status, it's a personal choice; if you could create any sort of clothing you wanted at will that is guaranteed to fit you, costing you nothing and saving on laundry chores, would you bother to own a lot of clothes? Plus the Immunity to Cold thing as well. Other than her cats, she's pretty much used to living out of a duffel bag; just getting an actual apartment is going to be a huge change for her.

I am more than willing to either handwave it or spend a pp on any sort of feat, including something like Benefit: Faerie Garments; I just want to make sure this issue (and Grim herself!) is covered somehow before I start playing this version of the character. I try to anticipate these things early before they become issues far on down the line

BTW, do I need two approvals on this version to get it up and running? I would expect so.

[Dr Archeville]

You don't need to pay for Benefit (Morphic Faerie Garments). The Atom brats didn't pay for theirs

As for approvals, since this is such a massive change, she probably should go through the process. It shouldn't take long, though.

[N/A]

I don't think it's a great leap to assume that her Morph power applies to both her flesh and her clothes. You can say she uses her Glamour to reshape both. That would solve this problem right there.

Also, the GMs could interpret Create Object more liberally. It could allow her to create enough small, separate objects to fill up the 3 10ft cubes, in which case, she could probably make umbrellas and fake IDs for the rest of her career without having to recycle any of them.

[N/A]

Oh, a couple of other strategic notes I forgot regarding the Grimalkin rebuild:

:arrow: Minions: You can take 10 on attack rolls against Minions. I repeat: You can take 10 on attack rolls against Minions. As soon as you can figure out what their Defense is, or as soon as you can make a decent guess, use your tradeoff feats (Defensive or Power Attack) to toggle your high Attack value down as low as it can go. Then take 10 on the attack rolls. Not only will you reliably take down a horde of Minions with Takedown Attack, but you can benefit from either increased Defense or increased Damage against them.

:arrow: Acrobat: You can make a DC25 check to pass through a 5ft square occupied by an opponent or an obstacle. The latest version of Grim can Take 1 and make this check. Combine that with her Leaping and Wall-Crawling, and her battlefield mobility is phenomenal even in a small corridor.

:arrow: Improved Critical: Don't forget that her claws have 2 ranks of this feat. She gets a critical hit (+5 damage) on a natural 18+, not a natural 20. That's a 15% chance instead of the normal 5%.

[N/A]

(17:26:03) Heritage: The whole reason I brought up the clothing issue is I thought with an array, I can't use more than one power in the array at the same time

(17:26:26) Heritage: so yes, Morph allows for clothing creation, but if she's using Enhanced Charisma, she can't Morph

(17:27:36) ShaenTheBrain: Yes, Heritage, that is correct. Her clothes will return to their original form.

(17:28:01) ShaenTheBrain: Along with the rest of her.

(17:28:17) Heritage: But what is her original form? Is it a naked girl, or someone in costume?

(17:28:21) ShaenTheBrain: Though part of the descriptor for the Enhanced Charisma or the Fear could be that her clothes change with her.

(17:28:50) Heritage: right, there are lost of ways to handwave it, I just wanted to be clear upfront

(17:29:00) ShaenTheBrain: Default form: Grim in whatever she's actually wearing. Enhanced Charisma: Whatever will look good and help her make the right impression. Fear: Something as scary as the rest of her. Morph: Whatever you want them to look like.

(17:29:04) Heritage: anything to avoid the need to edit IC threads later

(17:29:28) ShaenTheBrain: I assumed that part of the descriptors for those 2 forms is that she actually physically changes into a more pleasing or terrifying form while the power is active. Descriptors!

(17:29:36) Heritage: right

(17:29:40) Heritage: makes sense

(17:29:46) ShaenTheBrain: Since Morph isn't active in those settings, she'll still be recognizable as Grim. Just a more appealing or scary version of Grim.

[N/A]

Leveling Up: Grimalkin

I would recommend keeping her Attack and Defense higher than her Damage and Toughness, respectively, to keep her in-theme as a quick, agile fighter who floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. How narrow or far that gap remains is up to you.

Example: When you buy her up to PL11 combat caps, you could keep her Damage and/or Toughness at +8, and just increase her Attack and/or Defense to compensate. 14 + 8 = 22, 22 / 2 = PL11, so if you leave her DMG & TOUGH alone, you could buy her ATK and DEF all the way up to +14 each.

Or, you could decide to narrow the gap, leaving her ATK & DEF at +12 each, and buying her DMG & TOUGH up to +10 each.

12 + 10 = 22, 22 / 2 = PL11.

The choice is yours.

Attack: This is simple to justify increases for. She either develops more actual combat skill through training and practice, gets even more superhumanly agile than she already is, or both. Increase her base Attack bonus, Attack Focus (Melee) feats, or Attack Specialization (Claws) feats, depending on how many points you have to work with and what direction you want to take her fighting style in.

Damage: You could easily get away with buying her another 2PP of Strength, raising her to 18 (+4). Go any higher, and she won't just be "stronger than she looks." She'll be much, much stronger than she looks. Since she's a faerie, you could get away with that. Or you could just buy up her rank in Strike, making her claws more powerful (and making her that much more dependent on them).

Defense: Repeat everything I said above about Attack, only replace the traits with base Defense and Dodge Focus.

Toughness: This is the most difficult increase to justify. Unless you decide, as with Strength, that she's much, much stronger than she looks, I can't see increasing her Constitution any further or adding any Protection. That leaves buying more ranks in Defensive Roll, which will make being surprised proportionately more devastating.

Fear: This one is easy. Just spend 2PP on her Glamour array to increase the power rank by 1. Since it's both a Perception-range effect and an Area effect, it's capped at her PL, with no tradeoffs possible.

[Angel]

I'd like to see what you could do for Angel. Heck, I know she just got approved bot take a shot at Witch too.

[N/A]

One of my first requests was from Kavos. First, I'll take a look at his kid hero energy controller Boomer.

The first thing that leaps out at me is his powers. He's invested so many points into his main array that his Selective Area attacks are bought all the way up to the PL. Now, I don't cleave to the apparent philosophy of Steve Kenson and the other M&M developers, that attack powers should always cost 2PP/PL total, and that higher-cost attacks should be purchased at lower ranks. I've always thought that was silly. But you really don't need to buy Area attacks up to PL as a general rule. Because the purpose of Area attacks is to sweep a lot of Minions at once. And you will hardly ever face a group of Minions that are of comparable PL to you.

So my first recommendation would be to take some points out of his attack array. He's a +10 ATK / +10 DMG character, so go ahead and let the AoE attacks fall down to +8 DMG. Consider lowering the array point value as a whole, lowering the AoE attacks below rank 10, adding a single-target Dazzle at the PL, and dropping some of the Penetrating ranks off the single-target Blast.

Penetrating is literally twice as good as Impervious, in that you only need about half as much Penetrating to overcome it. Blast 5 (Penetrating 5) overcomes Impervious Toughness 10. At rank 10, with Penetrating 10, he could punch through Impervious Toughness 20. How often is your PL10 kid hero going to run up against someone with Impervious Toughness +20? And even if he did, all that means is that, for once, Mr. Impervious Toughness +20 actually has to roll a save at all. With Toughness +20, he's going to make the save against your +10 damage Blast.

You're allowed to buy partial extras. You can have Force Field 10 with Impervious 8, and you can have Blast 10 with Penetrating 2. Personally, I wouldn't bother purchasing Penetrating on your blast past rank 5.

Now for the Alternate Form.

First, why bother with Elongation? He's Insubstantial, so no one is grappling him. And all his attacks are ranged or area. So that's 2PP being wasted.

Also, I can see what you're trying to do with Air-Walking + Speed, but you'd need a lot more Speed before it became truly cost-effective. As it stands, you could get Flight 4 for the same price you're paying for Air-Walking 2 + Speed 5. One rank slower. But Flight gives unlimited 3D movement, while Air-Walking still makes you ascend at 1/2 speed. I don't think it's a good choice.

Finally, I think the Stun aura is a nice idea, but in practice it doesn't have the skillz to pay the billz.

Since there are no significant attacks in this form, I'm guessing it serves two purposes: The utility of being able to go places solid people can't, and a panic-button for when things go very wrong and you need to flee with relative safety and haste. So the truly important parts are the Insubstantial, the movement power, and the Suffocation Immunity (so he can pass through permeable matter without choking, I imagine). Insubstantial 3, Immunity 2, and Flight 5 come out to 27PP. Even if you drop the cost of the array, you should be able to afford these.

Looking at his stats, powers, and saves, I see you're spending 5PP on his Fortitude save, 2PP on Defensive Roll, and 8PP on Force Field (not counting the Impervious). Why? He's got DEX 14, so having average baseline physical health and fitness obviously isn't part of your concept. You could drop Defensive Roll, drop 2PP from his Fortitude Save, and buy his CON up to 14, matching his DEX. Then you'd have Fortitude +5 and Toughness +10, just like you have now, and +2 on Recovery checks, and he wouldn't lose 2 ranks of Toughness if he's caught flat-footed.

Assuming you do this, you could also spend 2PP to buy the Impervious on his Force Field up to 10 (the PL limit). You're allowed to have more ranks of Impervious than you have ranks in Force Field / Protection, as long as you have Toughness from other sources. You just can't have more Impervious than you have total Toughness bonus.

It's good that you're dropping some of the Immunities, because you underpaid for them. Immunity to Damage of a given descriptor is 2PP for Uncommon, 5PP for Common, 10PP for Very Common. Immunity to All Effects of a given descriptor (Damage, environmental conditions, any power with that word on it) is 5PP for Uncommon, 10PP for Common, and 20PP for Very Common. At 2PP each, you only had Immunity to Plasma or Magnetic Damage, not any other powers with those descriptors.

Since so much of his Defense bonus is Dodge, I'd keep the Danger Sense and Uncanny Dodge. His Notice is a little low to take advantage of Danger Sense, though. He doesn't have Skill Mastery, so there will be situations where the GM rules that he's too threatened, distracted, and/or stressed out to take 10 on the Notice check.

His Skills are really low all around. Maybe this is by design. A lot of players intentionally keep skills low when making underage characters. But he has other traits that rely on some of those skills. If you hadn't already chosen to increase his Perform, I would have recommended it. Otherwise, his Fascinate feat is just wasting points.

Overall, with all of his skills hovering around +5 on the average, don't expect him to ever succeed at any but the most trivial of checks. See my Skills essay for more thoughts on buying Skills in general.

He doesn't have enough relevant skills to make any of his Abilities cost-effective (although with 5 CHA skills, he comes closer on that one than anyone else on the board), so I assume you bought them at their current levels for concept reasons. Good.

His exotic saves are a little low for a PL10. For some reason, most people seem to choose Saving Throws as the area to shave points when things get tight. If you look at most published characters and character examples, their saves tend to average out to about PL-2 or so. Boomer's saves average out to about PL-4. Consider raising them when you can.

[N/A]

Next up for Kavos is his villain, Ember Paw.

First, just as an aside, Spell Check = Your Friend. There are days in a "week." Strong is the opposite of "weak."

Now, on to the build:

His Super-Senses are a little confusing. I would rewrite this:

Super-Senses 13 (extended (type) hearing (x100), low-light vision, scent (detect magic ranged), Analytical (type Smell) ultra-hearing,) extended (type) Smell (x10) [13]

As this:

Super-Senses 8 (All Audio Senses [Extras: Extended], Low-Light Vision, Normal Olfactory [Extras: Acute, Analytical, Detect Magic, Extended], Ultrasonic Hearing) [8PP]

I believe that, since Olfactory (Smell + Taste - M&M doesn't separate them) is already Radius and Ranged by default, if you have Detect Magic for your Olfactory sense, you don't need to buy Ranged again.

I also believe that, since you only have one Olfactory sense, the Normal Olfactory Sense that everyone gets by default, you don't need to buy Extended for the entire Olfactory sense type. He does, however, have 2 different Audio senses (Normal Hearing and Ultrasonic Hearing), so it's worth it to buy Extended for the entire Audio sense type.

It's also worth noting that "Low-Light Vision" is just an extra for your Normal Vision. Specifically, it's "Counters Obscure (Single Descriptor ["Darkness"], Flaws: Limited [1/2 Effect])." Counters Obscure (Single Descriptor) counts 2PP, so the limited version costs 1PP. (I like understanding how powers work.)

That freed up 5PP right there.

There are a lot of characters I like to give low ranks of Speed and Leaping to. It's great utility. Good move there. I also don't really have a bad thing to say about the selection of Enhanced Feats.

Morph 1 gives Disguise +5. That isn't fooling anyone, the way Grimlock isn't fooling anyone into thinking he's a real dinosaur. If you want to be able to actually use it as a disguise, take it at rank 2 minimum, rank 4-5 preferred. Otherwise, it's just RP fluff. Consider adding more Morph ranks to the APs in the Spellbook array.

I see what you did with the Spellbook. You took 1 rank of Blast, then got a Device discount on 4 more ranks. It's clever. Consider buying the Move Object and Snare as APs of the Blast outside the spellbook as well, so they can stack the way your spellbook Blast can stack with the Blast outside the book.

With ATK +6 / DMG +7 (best-case scenario if Blasting with spellbook and Sneak Attack), he's about PL6.5 offensively, and with DEF +6 / TOUGH +4, he's averaging out to around PL5 defensively. You might want to increase his combat stats as soon as you can.

His melee damage is particularly embarrassing. If you care about it, you could buy up the Blast outside the spellbook by 1-2 ranks (which you'd have to do to hit PL caps on ranged attacks anyway), giving you a higher Mighty Strike AP. Pair that with an increase in STR of 2-4 points, and you could hit the PL cap, or close to it.

His Saving Throws, on the other hand, actually average out to PL6. That makes them unusually high. Way to go.

See my Skills essay. It has advice that relates directly to this character.

He has no Diplomacy, so if he wants a favor with Connected, he's going to have to burn a Hero Point. Fortunately, he has Luck, so he can spare them. He has +14, about what I'd consider the bare minimum Acrobat and Stealth bonuses to take advantage of Acrobatic Bluff and Sneak Attack. I would raise these as soon as you can. I'm guessing the Survival and Arcane Lore skills are for concept reasons only, because the difference between +2 and +1 Survival isn't worth the 1/4PP it costs you, and he has no other traits that take advantage of Arcane Lore (no Artificer, or Ritualist, etc.).

My main advice for this character is the same advice I give for every character: Figure out specifically what you want the character to do, and buy traits to make sure they will do it well. Don't try to do too many different things, especially as a PL6-7. Pick a couple of niches, and focus on them. Unless your concept demands it, if you can't do it well, don't bother spending the points to do it at all.

[N/A]

Another thing occurred to me about AA's kid hero Edge.

He has "Visual" as his sense type for his Uncanny Dodge feat. That is a Bad Choice.

This means that he'll be able to keep his Dodge bonus, despite being surprised or caught flat-footed...as long as the foe who surprised him doesn't have Concealment against Visual senses. And Visual senses are the most common type of senses to have Concealment against.

I would highly recommend switching this to another sense type. Any other sense type.

[N/A]

I was just thinking over Boomer and where/how I want to develop him, and I came across somewhat of a fork in the road.

The Basic concept of Boomer was in all honesty Inspired by Itune's 8 Visualization :shock:.... So the core of the concept is glowing light-O-doom basically.

Now I made the character under the basic concept of an Atom controller. A character who can fuse or split atoms to create 'sparks' of light.

Now the problem with that basic concept is conceivably the character could potentially turn into a Dr Manhattan character... able to do (or at least powerstunt) almost anything. From turning things insubstantual, to making them as hard as diamonds, to shaping matter itself.

This present's the problem of "short term thrills, long term spills." AKA Fun in concept but boring at the end of the day when nothing is a challenge. (Locked in a vault... not a problem just phase the vault door (Insub 4 affect objects) power stunt and your free....)

The other way of handling the character though is rather than making it an Atomic controller, is to narrow it down into a straight up Light controller. (more of a Dazzler character than, rather than a Dr. Manhattan or Jubilee character)

That put's clear defining limit's on the powers, and what can be stunted. However it would require a slight re-work of the character sheet's powers. (not really a problem seeing as It was probably going to get an overhaul anyway with this Optimization thing anyway.)

So than the question is what/how do I wan't the character to be able to do, and how do they do it? without creating any/much of a retcon. (or much of a headache for ref and player's alike. yet still stay realistic (such as how do you let some people see light, but not others? (dazzle's/obscures ext)

But that could be over-complicating things...

Anyway just some thoughts, for when you get to Boomer, I'm not 100% sure. The light controller would probably seem more fun in the long run. But the main question would be how to build/optimize it.

A Light Controller build is easy and straightforward to do, and causes fewer headaches than "Atomic Controllers." The Ray will always be easier to build than Firestorm or Captain Atom.

[N/A]

Here's a suggested rebuild to turn Boomer into a straightforward Light Controller:

Power Level: 10

Tradeoffs: None

Abilities [14PP]

Strength 10 (+0)

Dexterity 14 (+2)

Constitution 14 (+2)

Intelligence 14 (+2)

Wisdom 10 (+0)

Charisma 12 (+1)

Combat [16PP]

Initiative +6

Attack +4 Base, +10 Powers

Defense +4 Base, +2 Flat-Footed, +10 Shield

Damage +0 Unarmed, +10 Blast

Grapple +4

Knockback 1, 10 Force Field

Saving Throws [17PP]

Toughness +2, +10 (Impervious) Force Field

Fortitude +7 (5)

Reflex +8 (6)

Will +6 (6)

Skills [64 Ranks = 16PP]

Acrobatics 3 (+5)

Bluff 5 (+6)

Concentration 5 (+5)

Diplomacy 4 (+5)

Gather Information 4 (+5)

Knowledge (Business) 3 (+5)

Knowledge (Popular Culture) 3 (+5)

Notice 6 (+6)

Perform (Keyboards) 14 (+15)

Perform (Light Shows) 14 (+15)

Search 3 (+5)

Feats [3PP]

Benefit (Wealth) 1 (Wealthy)

Fascinate (Perform [Light Shows])

Improved Initiative

Powers [87PP]

Force Field 8 (Extras: Impervious 10) [18PP]

Immunity 11 (Light Effects, Starvation/Thirst [Photosynthesis]) [11PP]

Light Control 16 (32PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 3) [35PP]

Base Power: Blast 10 (Damage, Feats: Accurate 3, Accurate Attack, Improved Critical 2, Improved Range 3 [1,000ft Range, No Increments], Power Attack, Precise, Extras: Range [Ranged]) [31PP]

Alternate Power: Dazzle 10 (Visual Senses, Feats: Accurate 3, Accurate Attack, Improved Critical 2, Improved Range 3 [1,000ft Range, No Increments], Power Attack, Precise) [31PP]

Alternate Power: Emotion Control 10 (Feats: Progression [Area] 2 [25ft/rank = 250ft radius], Extras: Area [burst], Selective Attack, Flaws: Sense-Dependent [Vision]) [32PP]

Alternate Power: Light Form 7 (35PP Container, Drawbacks: Action 3 [Full]) [32PP]

Light Show 8 (16PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power) [17PP]

Base Power: Environment Control 4 (Distraction DC15, 50ft radius, Extras: Selective Attack) [16PP]

Alternate Power: Environment Control 8 (Daylight, 1,000ft radius) [16PP]

Shield 6 [6PP]

Abilities 14 + Combat 16 + Saving Throws 17 + Skills 16 + Feats 3 + Powers 87 - Drawbacks 0 = 153 Power Points

[N/A]

Ecal is consulting with me on the PL10 upgrade for his Claremont kid, Geckoman.

Here is his current working PL10 build:

Geckoman

Christopher "Chris" Kenzie

Power Level: 10 (155pp)

Abilities: STR: 14 (+2), DEX: 16/20 (+3/+5), CON: 14/18 (+2/+4), INT: 14 (+2), WIS: 10 (+0), CHA: 22 (+6)

Skills: Acrobatics 5 (+8/+10), Bluff 15 (+21), Craft [Electronic] 6 (+8), Craft [Mechanical] 6 (+8), Computers 3 (+5), Diplomacy 9 (+15),

Disable Device 5 (+8/+10), Gather Information 9 (+15), Investigate 8 (+10), Knowledge [Popular Culture] 8 (+10),

Knowledge [Technology] 8 (+10), Notice 10 (+10), Pilot 9 (+12/+15), Stealth 6 (+9/+11), Survival 5 (+5)

Feats: Attack Focus (Ranged) 2, Beginner's Luck, Challenge (Improved Feint), Challenge (Improved Taunt), Contacts

Distract (Bluff), Dodge Focus 3, Equipment 17, Fascinate (Bluff), Luck, Set-Up, Sneak Attack,

Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Pilot), Taunt, Teamwork

Powers:

Enhanced Dexterity 4 [4pp]

Enhanced Constitution 4 [pp]

Regeneration 7 (bruised/round, injured/min, staggered/20 mins, disabled/hr; Feats: Regrowth) [8pp]

Super-Movement 2 (Wall-crawling 2 [full speed]) [4pp]

Super-Senses 4 (infravision, low light vision, scent, tracking [olfactory]) [4pp]

Device 3 [Wrist Zappers] (Easy to Lose; 12pp)

Devices:

Wrist Zappers (15pp total)

Blast 6 [Electricity, PFs: Split Attack] (13pp)

AP: Super-Movement 1 (Swinging) linked to Speed 2 (25 MPH)

AP: ???

Equipment: 82/85 ep worth

Geckoman Costume: Protection 3, Subtle (4 ep)

Geckoman Mask: Commlink, flash goggles (1 ep)

Utility Belt: Power Knuckles [strike 4, Mighty]

AP: Cutting torch [blast 1, Drain Toughness 1]

AP: Smokebombs [Obscure Visual 2, Independent] (7 ep)

Utilities: Cell phone, concealable microphone, digital audio recorder, flash-light, lock release gun,

mini-tracer, multi-tool (2 ep)

The Pitchoo [or Ptychozoon] (68 ep)

Size: Huge, Strength: 40, Speed: Flight 8 [2,500 MPH], Defence: 8, Toughness: 12

Features: Auto-pilot, Computer, Living Space, Navigation System, Remote Control, Smokescreen

Powers: Blast 10 (electrical blasts, AP: Blast 6 (Extras: Area - Shapeable), Communication 5 (5 miles),

Concealment 2 (radar), Immunity 9 (life suppport), Super-Senses 4 (radar; Accurate Radio sense)

Combat: Attack +6/ Ranged +8 ; Damage +2 (Unarmed) / +6 (Blast) / +6 (knuckles) // +2 Sneak Attack; Defense +9 (+3 flat-footed); Initiative +3/+5

Saves: Toughness +7 (+4 without costume), Fortitude +4/+6, Reflex +5/+7, Will +5

Abilities 30 + Skills 29 (116 ranks) + Feats 33 + Powers 34 + Combat 24 + Saves 9 – Drawbacks 0 = Total 159

[N/A]

OK. I wracked my brain trying to come up with a rebuild that was better than what Ecal put together. And I've got nothing. Spider-Man or Blue Beetle can easily fill up a PL10/PP160 build by themselves. Combining them is a labor fit for Herakles.

Instead, I just have some minor suggestions and opinions that may or may not be of use. This build has humbled me like no other.

Abilities & Skills:

As a Costumed Detective (kinda), he might want to invest in the Escape skill. If he does, then he'll have 4 DEX-based skills, Reflex, and Initiative, meaning DEX will actually be an efficient investment for him.

He currently has 8 INT skills. If he picks up even 1 more (like, for example, Search), then INT will also become cost-effective.

Diplomacy: With +15 and Skill Mastery, he should have the Connected feat. He'd be able to call on the highest level of favors without even needing a roll.

Skill Mastery: Contacts already lets you take 10 and 20 on Gather Information checks, and I don't think you'll ever have to make one while threatened. So I would substitute another skill here. I would recommend Acrobat. With his +10 bonus, hitting DC20 reliably will fulfill just about every function of that skill. And it's a really useful skill.

Teamwork: I advocate taking 2 ranks of this feat if you're going to take it at all. If you're giving up your standard action to aid someone else's they should get at least a +4 bonus.

Regeneration: I think it would be worth it for him to buy the Bruised recovery rate all the way up to 1/round/no action. Especially to compensate for his lower effective combat PL. Being able to automatically peel off 1 bruise per round is HUGE. It makes you a lot harder to wear down. Having to sit there and do nothing for an entire round just to peel off a bruise just delays your inevitable loss. Peeling off one bruise per round while also doing something to actively help your situation helps you win.

You should also consider grabbing the Diehard feat, since his +4 recovery bonus makes stabilizing from Dying far from a sure thing.

The Pitchoo: I doubt you really need it to go that fast. I'd drop a rank or two of Flight. I would add the Accurate feat to the Blast, to compensate for the -2 Attack penalty for Huge Size. That brings the Blasters to 21PP. For the same 1EP price as that smokescreen, you could get the following AP: Obscure 7 (Visual + Olfactory [or Radio] Senses, 500ft radius, Extras: Independent, Total Fade, Flaws: Range [Touch]).

[N/A]

Leveling Up: Boomer

Definitely bring up those saving throws when you get the chance.

Powers:

If you want to regain those AoE attacks, it isn't difficult. 1PP each will get you the following APs off the current Light Control array:

Blast 8 (Extras: Area, Selective Attack) [32PP]

Dazzle 8 (Visual Senses, Extras: Area, Selective Attack) [32PP]

Rank 8 should be more than sufficient to deal with hordes of Minions.

I would add Flight as an AP to the Light Show array as soon as possible. Those Flight ranks will stack with the ranks in Light Form, allowing Boomer to fly much faster when he becomes a ball of light. Flight 10 is enough to reach escape velocity and fly out into space (though not really fast enough to go anywhere once he's out there).

I would also recommend making the powers in the Light Show array Dynamic. That way, he could inflict one effect on a large area, or both effects on a smaller area. And if he adds Flight to the mix, he could fly and still glow.

If you ever want him to be truly "space-worthy" (not a huge concern since most of our adventures are based in one city), here's how I would do it:

Flight and Space Flight can't be APs in the same array, unless you've got them purchased separately outside the array. It's a weird rule, but just go with it. So I would add some Space Flight to his Light Form. Then add both Flight and Space Flight as APs in his Light Show array. When he takes Light Form, he can switch the other array to one of the movement powers, they'll all stack, and he'll take off like a rocket.

Other thematically-appropriate powers he might want to add to the Light Form are Super-Senses 1 (Normal Vision [Extras: Radius]) [1PP] and Immunity 2 (Critical Hits) [2PP].

[N/A]

Still on my list, I have QuoteMyName (Captain Kneival and PL10 Breakdown), Cyroa (DarkStar and PL10 Hellion), Avalon (The Vestige), Angel (Angel), and Doktor Archeville (Belphegor, Viktor Archeville, and Dead-Head). Have I forgotten anyone who submitted a request?