Avenger Assembled Posted January 8, 2012 Author Posted January 8, 2012 Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz "As they say in Mexico, "Dasvidaniya!" Down there, that's two vidaniyas." PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 36 pp STR 12 (+1) DEX 10 (+0) CON 20 (+5) INT 24 (+7) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+6 Ranged, +10 Inator, +10 Boxing, +12 In-Ator Arsenal) DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +5 Saves: 13 pp TOU +15 (+5 Con, +10 Protection) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +6 (+0 Dex, +6) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 112 r=28 pp Craft (Chemical) 8 (+15) Craft (Electronic) 8 (+15, Skill Mastery) Craft (Mechanical) 8 (+15, Skill Mastery) Disable Device 8 (+15, Skill Mastery) Drive 4 (+5) Knowledge (Life Sciences) 8 (+15) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 8 (+15) Knowledge (Technology) 8 (+15, Skill Mastery)) Languages 3 (English, Russian, Spanish; Base: German) Perform (bluster) 9 (+10) Perform (dance) 1 (+2) Perform (musical theater) 4 (+5) Profession (lawn gnome) 8 (+10) Notice 8 (+10) Pilot 4 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 5 (+7) Feats: 17 pp Attack Focus: Ranged 2 Attack Specialization: In-Ator 2 Dodge Focus 1 Eidetic Memory Equipment 5 (Doofenshmirtz Evil, Incorporated) Jack of all Trades Inventor Master Plan Speed of Thought Skill Mastery (Craft (Electronic), Craft (Mechanical), Disable Device, Knowledge (Technology)) Ultimate Save (Toughness) Powers: 40 pp Damage 3 (PFs: Accurate 3, Mighty) [7 pp] 'boxing champion at his middle school back in Gimmelshtump" Device 7 (In-Ator Arsenal) (Easy to Lose) (PFs: Accurate, Restricted [iNT 24+]) [23 pp] Blast 8 (Extras: Autofire, Penetrating) 'paper cut-inator' [32+3=35 pp] AP: Dimensional Pocket 8 (Capacity: 1000 lbs) (Extras: Duration [sustained], Ranged, Flaw: Action [Full]) 'g away-inator' AP: Snare 8 (Extras: Autofire, Transparent) 'gun that shoots pure evil' Protection 10 [10 pp] Equipment: 25 ep Doofenshmirtz Evil, Incorporated Size: Large; Toughness: 10; Features: Communications, Computer, Defense System, Fire Prevention System, Gym, Hangar, Infirmary, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Personnel, Power 3 (Features), Power System, Security System 2 (DC 25), Self-Destruct System, Workshop. Cost: 2 + 1 + 23 = 25/25 Power: Snare 10 (various snares [Snare 10 (Extras: Range [Perception], Transparent, PFs: , Subtle, Variable Descriptor 2 [technology] ) {53/60} costs abilities 36 + combat 16 + saves 13 + skills 28/112 + feats 15 + powers 40 = 150 pts ---------------- Design Notes: Here's Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, primary antagonist of Perry the Platypus and the most dangerous member of League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investments in Naughtiness (aka, L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N). He's a maniacal supervillain with dreams of ruling the entire tri-state area, true, but he's not such a bad guy: he's a divorced father trying to stay part of his teenage daughter's life, a lonely man looking for a long-term relationship with others, and a man who happily takes two young inventors under his wing even after their shuttlecock inflicts significant property damage on his penthouse laboratory. Not included here are his daughter/assistant Vanessa and his robot NORM, both of whom I would stat as independent characters in a Phineas and Ferb-oriented game. His INT may seem high, but this is a man who routinely violates the laws of physics whenever it suits his fancy and who has built some remarkable inventions: as visits to other histories and dimensions have shown, it really is Perry the Platypus who is standing between Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his dreams of tri-state conquest. He's shown a tremendous degree of physical resiliency in the series, his most famous moment being strapped to a cruise missile (well, the world's largest firework), exploding with it hundreds of feet in the air, falling to the ground, and getting up to rock along with fashion metal superstars Lovehandel at their triumphant reunion concert. I used Gizmo's formulation for combat training from his pony builds to show how he can plausibly hold his own briefly in hand-to-hand combat vs. a PL 10 superagent, but ultimately Perry will win out, especially since Perry can do Fort damage (by kicks to the kneecap, etc) that Doof can't shrug off the way he can physical attacks. He has the skills of a man raised by ocelots and forced to work as a lawn gnome who just happens to be a gadgeteer genius. No Wealth, since he gets all his money via alimony checks from his ex-wife, and indeed has a plot where he has to keep the bank from foreclosing on him. He can plausibly pull out most any invention in any given scenario, and stunt off his man-portable Inators to pull out any effect when necessary. (To represent him accurately, you should give him Side-Effect on his stunted Devices, given what usually happens) If used as a villain, give him whatever minions are appropriate to the scenario: as a hero, his only real weakness is his lack of movement powers! Perhaps you should get him a monster truck, so he doesn't have to make sense!
Avenger Assembled Posted January 13, 2012 Author Posted January 13, 2012 Ball-Jeet "Oooh, the French are so intimidating!" PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 18 (+4) INT 22 (+6) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 melee) DEF: +6 Init: +0 Grapple: +10/+15/+20 Saves: 15 pp TOU +14 (+4 Con, +10 Protection) FORT +7 (+4 Con, +3) REF +7 (+0 Dex, +7) WILL +7 (+3 Dex, +5) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Bluff 1 (+5) Computers 14 (+20, Skill Mastery) Craft [electronic] 6 (+10, Skill Mastery) Craft [mechanical] 6 (+10, Skill Mastery) Diplomacy 1 (+5) Knowledge [history] 14 (+20) Knowledge [technology] 14 (+20, Skill Mastery) Languages 1 (English; Base: Hindi) Notice 7 (+10) Perform [guitar] 1 (+5) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Feats: 13 pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Eidetic Memory Evasion Inventor Jack of all Trades Move-By Action Online Research Skill Mastery (Computers, Craft [electronic], Craft [mechanical], Knowledge [Technology]) Ultimate Save [Toughness] Well-Informed Powers: 41 pp Elongation 10 (5000 ft) [Dynamic] [10+1+2+2+2=17 pp] DAP: Insubstantial 1 (fluid form) [5] and Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1] and Super-Movement 2(Slithering, Wall-Crawling) [4] DAP: Strike 10 DAP: Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 1.5 tons) Immunity 5 (Falling Damage) [5 pp] Impervious TOU 10 (Flaw: Limited [vs. physical only]) [5 pp] Leaping 3 (x10) [3+1=4 pp] AP: Speed 3 (50 MPH) Protection 10 [10 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 15 + skills 18/72 + feats 13 + powers 41 = 150 pts --------- Design Notes: Here's Baljeet, another Phineas and Ferb character. Baljeet is the 'nerd' of the main cast, the meek, unassuming genius and workaholic. Taking advantage of his intelligence and his uncle's business, I built him as basically a Mr. Fantastic type: a smart stretcher who's as likely to pull out an invention in a fight as he is to throw a punch. To play up his role as a secondary inventor, while he's very smart, his skills are pretty hyper-focused. He's very tough, like a lot of stretchy guys, particularly one who takes so much friendly physical abuse from his team brick: with +14 Tou and Ultimate Tou, he can suck up some pretty massive hits and be just fine. (His Fort save's not that great, though, so if you hit him with a Stunning Attack somewhere vital he'll feel it, and maybe sing about it) He has base Strength and Dex, with neither a plus nor a minus: he plays sports with the other kids just fine, he's just not that good at a lot of them! He's bilingual in Hindi and English, which he explicitly gives as his languages on-camera. He's not terribly mechanically inclined, with his low Craft, but he's certainly not awful: with his high INT, skills, and feats, he should at least know something! While he's something of an ethnic stereotype made flesh (the hard-working Asian-American student), he's still a fun character, and the show makes it very clear that Baljeet is a very unusual kid, just like all of the class! He lacks a lot of social skills, but he's a good singer and has a lot of charm when he really puts his mind to it, as represented by his high Charisma. He's surprisingly popular with the ladies! He makes a fine native hero for India, perhaps a teenager from Mumbai exposed to a radioactive polymer while his class was on a lab tour, or just an adult scientist. His strong academic honor code is a good complication if you play him as a Claremont student, or as any other sort of scholar. He doesn't have the tremendous mobility of some stretchy characters (and he's not a good fighter at all, as Baljeet certainly should not be), but he can keep moving in a fight without having to drop his damage any thanks to his ability to bounce around outside his array. Character development could build up his Craft skills, making him more of a straightforward gadgeteer, or you could play up his intelligence and give him more "super-brain" tricks like Comprehend or Enhanced Attack: perhaps a higher Will save (or even an immunity to mental effects) if you want to give him a rubber brain like DC's Plastic Man.
Avenger Assembled Posted January 14, 2012 Author Posted January 14, 2012 Cyborg Illusionist "Your eyes are the last thing you should believe, darling." PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 22 pp STR 20/10 (+5/+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Illusion powers) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +6/+11 Saves: 13 pp TOU +10 (+5 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +12/+8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 10 pp=40 r Bluff 6 (+10, Skill Mastery) Diplomacy 6 (+10, Skill Mastery) Gather Info 6 (+10, Skill Mastery) Intimidate 6 (+10, Skill Mastery) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 9 pp Dodge Focus 4 Improved Initiative Luck 2 Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Info, Intimidate) Well-Informed Powers: 72 pp Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Illusion Array [33+1=34 pp] Illusion 10 (all senses) (Flaw: Phantasm, PFs: Precise, Progression 2 (25x25 ft) AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Ranged, PFs: Accurate 2, Subtle) Mind Shield 4 [4 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Super-Senses 11 (Blindsight [radio; Extended], Direction Sense, Distance Sense, Infravision, Radio, Time Sense, Tracking [infravision]) [11PP] Super-Senses 10 (Danger Sense [Mental], Mental Awareness 2 [Mental], Precognition [Flaw: Uncontrolled], Uncanny Dodge [Mental], Vision Counters Illusion) [8PP] costs abilities 22 + combat 24 + saves 13 + skills 10/40 + feats 9 + powers 72 = 150 pts --------- Design Notes: Taking a short break from Phineas and Ferb conversions, here's Facade, one of the more interesting characters from the Algernon Files Superlink supplement. Facade is an antagonist in the game, a member of the villain team the Black Knights. She used to be a heroine called Spellbinder before she realized she'd been lying to herself about what she really wanted (to screw with people rather than save them, and to use her fame to get rich) and switched sides right in the middle of a major superbattle. (The Black Knights were as surprised as anyone else!) Facade's former teammates took her defection quite badly, and one particular loose cannon who evidently had his own problems with heroic virtue injured her severely before the Black Knights made their escape with her along with them. Grateful for the help, the Knights repaired Facade's injuries with cybernetic upgrades, transforming her into a cyborg with significant psychic abilities, and together they rejoined their new career. (She's a very serious threat in-game, her PL 13 Illusions and mental powers making her among the most powerful members of her new team) I've tried to build Facade as basically as a merger of the Cyborg and Illusionist archetypes, taking advantage of Trollthumper's Ravnos build to make a streamlined, but still powerful illusion array. She can project powerful illusions to fool any human eye, she can hurl illusionary bolts of fire or electricity (or pull out a gun), and she has the sort of helpful supplementary mental powers that let her fill a role as secondary team psychic. With her cybernetic upgrades, she can see in the dark, hear radio signals, fight blind, and track people's movements mentally. She also has internal armor that toughens her up; steel bones and metal that let her take some solid hits. (No Impervious, though, since all her metal bits are on the inside). She works just fine as a potential threat in-game with her background intact, making her a particularly odious bad guy. Her background works just fine for a hero if you flip her Face Heel Turn and say she's a villain who switched sides to the heroes in the middle of the battle, and the Freedom League repaired her injuries as best they could in gratitude for her coming to their assistance. As it is, potential injuries to her cybernetic components are good Complications since she doesn't have any way of repairing them herself given that she's all about social manipulation rather than tech stuff. To fix that, a good way to upgrade her would be to give her some Tech skills to say she's learned how to take care of her own machine parts.
Avenger Assembled Posted January 16, 2012 Author Posted January 16, 2012 Terrakinetic "I am the greatest earthbender in the world!" Abilities: 26 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 24 (+7) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Terrakinetic powers) DEF: +8 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +8 Grapple: +6/+20 Saves: 12 pp TOU +12 (+7 Con, +5 Force Field) FORT +7 (+7 Con) REF +7 (+0 Dex, +7) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 13 pp=52 r Bluff 12 (+14) Concentration 4 (+6) Intimidate 12 (+14) Knowledge (Civics) 3 (+5) Knowledge (Earth Sciences) 3 (+5) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 2 (+4) Feats: 9 pp Challenge 2 (Fast Startle, Fast Taunt) Improved Initiative 2 Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Taunt Ultimate Check (Terrakinetic power checks) Powers: 66 pp Force Field 5 [5PP] Leaping 2 (x5) [2+1=3PP] AP: Speed 2 (25 MPH) Shield 2 [2PP] Super-Senses 13 (Detect Earth 2 [Mental, Extras: Accurate, Acute, Analytical, Radius, Ranged], Tremorsense [Tactile, Extras: Analytical, Extended, Ranged], Uncanny Dodge [tactile]) [13PP] Terrakinetic Array [36+5=41 PP] Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire, PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 2, Precise, Variable Descriptor 1 [any earth]) AP: Create Object 10 (Extra: Duration [Continous], PFs: Precise, Progression 3 (10 50 ft cubes), Selective, Subtle) AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Selective, PFs: Knockback 2 [DMG 12], Indirect 2, Precise, Variable Descriptor 1 [any earth]) AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Selective, Targeted Area [shapeable], PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 2, Precise, Variable Descriptor 1 [any earth]) AP: Move Object 10 (Extra: Perception, Flaw: Limited [Earth Only], PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 2, Precise, Split Attack) AP: Snare 10 (Extra: Autofire, PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 2, Precise, Variable Descriptor 1 [any earth]) AP: Transform 9 (Earth Into Same Earth, 500 lbs., 10 90ft Range Increments / 900ft Max Range; Extras: Duration [Continuous/Lasting]) costs abilities 26 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 13/52 + feats 9 + powers 66 = 150 pts ------------------------- Design Notes: Here's my build for a terrakinetic, a common comic book archetype represented on this board most famously by Gaian Knight. Though probably the most famous comic book version of this powerset is DC's Terra, I've chosen to instead build Toph bei Fong, the best character from Avatar: The Last Airbender who isn't Iroh. She's the most powerful earthbender in the setting, though she perhaps lacks the finesse of the older characters we've met, and is so talented that she's able to transcend the traditional limitations of her martial art and learn how to manipulate metal as well. She's "the Blind Bandit", champion of the local martial arts circuit, and has a bombastic personality that's a delight to behold. She's also twelve years old, shorter than the rest of the child cast, and completely blind. This build represents Toph in Season 2, before exigent circumstances forced her to learn metal-bending and much else as well. She's a very skilled fighter, easily capable of laying opponents flat-footed with trash-talking to play to her audience and then Power Attacking them with a massive rock bombardment; she can also easily control a battlefield (especially a fantasy one) with ground attacks and Selective Create Object. She has some trouble against mobile opponents, though, especially since she's dependent on her tactile super-senses to hit anything. I've chosen to represent her blindness entirely as a complication here; it mostly seemed to impede her when dramatically (or comedically) appropriate in the series. The HP from the complication also lets her buy more feats to use in the combat she's very likely to find herself in. She's not Fearless, she has faced real fear in various crises, but with her high Intimidate she's going to be extremely hard to shake. She can take some massive punishment, but still has a high enough Defense that she can reasonably counter most minions riding giant firetanks. She's got the skills to reasonably pass as a society lady, though without Diplomacy her heart will never really be in it, as well as just enough Survival to plausibly sneak away from home and hang out with the badger-moles for a while without starving to death in the woods. A comic book version would probably have some Platform Flight; in the series we mostly see her riding around on waves of earth like she's surfing. With more PP, she could easily buy up some metal control.
Avenger Assembled Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 Manipulative Psychic She's calling from Hell? On her cell phone? Abilities: 36 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 16 (+3) CON 20 (+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+11 Melee/+15 Unarmed) DEF: +15 (+4 flat-footed) Grapple: +16 Init: +3 Saves: 11 pp TOU +5 (+5 Con) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+3 Dex, +4) WILL +10/+7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 56 r=14 pp Bluff 8 (+10, Skill Mastery), Concentration 8 (+10), Diplomacy 8 (+10, Skill Mastery), Gather Info 8 (+10, Skill Mastery), Intimidate 8 (+10, Skill Mastery), Knowledge (Business) 4 (+5), Notice 4 (+6) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 20 pp Attack Focus: Melee (3) Attack Specialization: Unarmed (2) Benefit (Wealth) (1), Contacts, Dodge Focus (7), Evasion, Power Attack, Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers), Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Info, Intimidate) Takedown Attack Well-Informed Powers: 37 pp Mental Array [32+1=33 pp] Mind Control 10 (Extras: Conscious, Instant Command, Flaw: Action [Full], PFs: Mental Link, Subtle) AP: Mental Blast 10 (Flaw: Action [Full], PFs: Incurable, Reversible) Mind Shield 3 [3 pp] Super-Senses 1 (Uncanny Dodge [mental]) [1 pp] costs abilities 36 + combat 32 + saves 11 + skills 14/56 + feats 20 + powers 37 = 150 pts ----------------------- Design Notes: All right, here's my build for a manipulative, socially savvy psychic akin to DC Comics' Max Lord. I have the vague backstory idea that he used to be just another junior executive working the business side of things for the Freedom League, one of those alpha male executive guys who are fanatical about physical fitness but empty inside, until a supervillain attack on the League's business office unlocked the inner potential he'd been hiding all his life, transforming him into a hero in his own right: he's much less versatile than typical psychics, but his mind control abilities are very powerful: with a look, he can spend an action and earn the happy obedience of almost anyone without a good Will Save, or concentrate and subject them to terrible pain. He can also punch them in the face with some efficacy, so he's not totally helpless if put up against undead or robots. (I was a big Max Lord fan before his Face Heel Turn and all the stories that came with it; not for the writing as such but because I really like the schtick of 'former supporting NPC finds he has powers and has to compete with the big boys now', one of the reasons I like the old White Wolf powers RPG so much is that there's a specific mechanic for your supporting cast to suddenly get superpowers of their own!) He's something of a jack-of-all-trades, but reasonably competent at everything: he makes a fine face man for a team just starting out, maybe the guy who does the business planning for a new superteam, making the connections that the more streetwise members can't make on their own. In our game he should probably find _some_ way to actually be a superhero in his own right, whether it's adopting a code name, costume, secret identity, or some combination of the three. He's got solid saves, enough that he can do okay in most situations he's likely to encounter, and pretty good physical abilities compared to your average psychic. A good way to develop him is to up his mental abilities, maybe adding more super-senses or APs from his mental powers, or perhaps boosting his social skills as an alternative if you want to play up his aspects as a social manipulator. There can be a lot of fun with the "Bruce Wayne with superpowers" niche, one that I'm not sure comics has explored as fully as they could have. Combat's fun and all, but being able to talk your enemies down, perhaps with an offer to come onto your payroll at double their current salary (and maybe some health benefits) is even better!
Avenger Assembled Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 Dimensionally-Displaced Armored Paragon Comics, kids! PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 26 pp STR 34/24/14 (+12/+7/+2) DEX 10 (+0) CON 34/24/14 (+12/+7/+2) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +6 (+7 melee) [+8 melee in suit] DEF: +7 (+2 flat-footed) [+8 in suit] Init: +0 Grapple: +14/+16/up to +26 in suit Saves: 10 pp TOU +12 (+7 Con, +5 from Enhanced Con in suit) FORT +12 (+7 Con, +5 from Enhanced Con in suit) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 36 r=9 pp Craft (electronic) 8 (+10) Craft (mechanical) 8 (+10) Knowledge (History) 3 (+5) Knowledge (Technology) 8 (+10) Notice 3 (+5) [11 (+13) in suit] Search 0 [8 (+10) in suit] Sense Motive 3 (+5) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 8 pp Attack Focus: Melee Dodge Focus 3 Leadership Inventor Power Attack Takedown Attack Powers: 77 pp Device 11 (Power Armor) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [voiceprint]) [45 pp] Enhanced Feats 2 (Attack Focus [melee], Dodge Focus) [2dp] Enhanced Skills 16 (Notice 8, Search 8) [4dp] Enhanced CON 10 [10dp] Enhanced STR 10 [10dp] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9dp] Impervious TOU 5 [5dp] Power Reserve 5 (10 pp; Flight [to Flight 6 [500 MPH] and Super-Strength [to Super-Strength 6 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) [10dp] Super-Senses 7 (Accurate Extended 3 (x1000) Radio Sense, Uncanny Dodge [radio]) [7dp] Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [Dynamic] [2+1+2=5 pp] DAP: Super-Strength 1 (Heavy Load: 800 lbs) Immunity 2 (aging, temporal effects) [2 pp] Impervious TOU 5 [5 pp] costs abilities 26 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 9/36 + feats 8 + powers 77 = 150 pts -------------- Design Notes: All right, as something of a personal challenge, here's Superboy-Prime, the raging Silver Age paragon turned cosmic supervillain of the mid-2000s DC universe, as a PL 10 superhero. I've based him on both Doc's Armored Paragon build and TT's more recent Living Continuity Error. The idea is that this was a young paragon, perhaps a street-level hero or Hero High student, who survived the extinction of his home universe and made it safely to ours. My idea is that he built the armor to escape whatever place he landed in after the fall of his home timeline, perhaps some island of flotsam in the timestream or a planet in the Terminus, depending on what backstory you want to give him and what kind of 'retconned paragon' he actually is. (Someone from a bad history is going to have different motivations, and different enemies, than someone whose home universe was destroyed by the Terminus) I've managed to just about mash together paragon powers, tech abilities, and being immune to changes in the timestream to make a plausible survivor of the Big Boom, as it were. He doesn't have an ability to sense anomalies in the universe, but that's a viable thing for you to accumulate with PP if he takes an interest in looking for the remains of the old embedded in the new; maybe he makes a point to protect people and places that are duplicates of what existed in his own universe, perhaps a family that doesn't remember him or a home planet that only remembers sending one native son to Earth. There's a lot of potential tragedy in a character like this, but he doesn't have to necessarily be played for pathos: if his world was sufficiently dystopian before its fall, perhaps he won't miss it as much as someone who saw his family uncreated before his eyes. He's a solid PL 7, with or without his powers (assuming he still has the suit) and can function reasonably viably in both contexts. He's a much better fighter and flier inside the suit, thanks to it both augmenting his strength as well as providing him with targeting aid to make him superior in hand-to-hand combat: though he's primarily a melee fighter, his base attack is high enough that you could reasonably stunt some sort of Blast off his various abilities. An obvious antagonist are the forces that destroyed his home world, or from the other end of things maybe it's the other survivors of that universe who are the threat; whether villains trying to rebuild a fallen dystopia, or misguided heroes trying to resurrect what was even if it means destroying everything about the new.
Avenger Assembled Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 USAngel Y'all, don't tell anyone, but I'm pretty sure President Obama just sprouted Old Glory wings. I think our president might be an X-Man -Melissa McEwen, January 24, 2012 PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 36 pp STR 24/14 (+7/+2) DEX 24/14 (+7/+2) CON 24/14 (+7/+2) INT 14 (+2) WIS 20 (+5) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+8 Melee) DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed) Grapple: +15 Init: +7 Saves: 5 pp TOU +12 (+7 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +10 (+7 Con, +3) REF +7 (+7 Dex) WILL +7 (+5 Wis, +2) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Acrobatics 3 (+10) Bluff 5 (+10) Diplomacy 10 (+15) Intimidate 10 (+15) Knowledge (Civics) 8 (+10) Knowledge (History) 8 (+10) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 4 (+6) Languages 2 (Indonesian, Swahili) (Base: English) Notice 5 (+10) Sense Motive 5 (+10) Feats: 16 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 4 Benefit (Hero of the People) Dodge Focus 4 Jack of all Trades Leadership Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 62 pp Comprehend 3 (speak and understand all languages simultaneously) [6 pp] Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Flight 3 (50 MPH) (Drawback: Restrainable) [5 pp] Immunity 7 (aging, disease, poison, sleep, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [7 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection 1/week) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [3 pp] Strike 5 (PF: Mighty) 'patriot’s weapon' [6 pp] costs abilities 36 + combat 16 + saves 5 + skills 15/60 + feats 16 + powers 62 = 150 pts ----------- Design Notes: Inspired by a recent blog quote (and the above picture), here's the President of the United States were he an avatar for a patriotic angel. The idea of an angel taking sides in a political dispute may seem crazy, but I could see it happening in a Golden Age comic in one of those bits of madness that works its way into regular continuity through inertia: an angel who comes down from Heaven to fight for the most righteous of all nations, America, against the wicked forces of the Axis! Yes, it's some pretty strong cheese, but that's how they flavored it back in the day. It's not a whole lot weirder than Uncle Sam, just with a slightly Judeo-Christian angle. But Golden Age comics had the Wrath of God as a character, so why not something like this? The idea I've had here is that the angel is an avatar passed down from person to person over the years, representing the changing face of America. He could use Inspire, but with his Leadership he can function decently well as commander of a team or leader of some largr group. He's basically a Zauriel/Captain America blend with enhanced physical abilities, angel wings and a glowing patriotic weapon he can summon from the ether, as well as an ability to recover from death and otherwise survive great mortal harm: he's got a lot of high skills and abilities to reflect his years of activity as a hero as well as his strong connection to the American national spirit. Contrary to what some people might consider a negative national stereotype of Americans, he can speak every language, with the idea that he has a mystical connection to every American to do just that. I cannot stress enough that (despite having already built the current POTUS as a Kryptonian) you should avoid playing the President of the United States as a PC. If you're considered about the unfortunate implications of an all-American angel, run with them: maybe other divine characters are baffled by an angel embracing a nationalistic entity, treating this as something of a weird hobby that's gotten way out of hand, or maybe the whole thing is just overblown: maybe this angelic character came to the US as a way of fighting infernalist Nazis and has (much to his/her embarrassment) become associated with American nationalism in the meantime.
Avenger Assembled Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 Spy Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies. -Jane Austen Abilities: 44 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 18 (+4) CON 20 (+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+9 Melee/+15 Unarmed) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +14 Saves: 10 pp TOU +7 (+5 Con, +2 Defensive Roll) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Acrobatics 1 (+5) Bluff 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Diplomacy 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Disable Device 9 (+10, Skill Mastery) Drive 1 (+5) Gather Information 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Intimidate 5 (+10) Language 3 (Arabic, Russian, Spanish; Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Pilot 1 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 6 (+10) Feats: 26 pp Attack Focus: Melee 1 Attack Specialization: Unarmed 3 Beginner’s Luck Benefit (Security Clearance [AEGIS]) Defensive Roll Dodge Focus 5 Equipment 7 Evasion Jack of all Trades Luck Power Attack Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Gather Info) Takedown Attack Taunt Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 18 pp Gadgets 2 (Hard to Lose, 10 pp) (Extras: Action [Free]) [18 pp] Sample Builds Blast 5 (Blaster Pistol) [10 pp] Concealment 10 (all senses) (Flaw: Passive) [10 pp] Equipment: 35 ep AEGIS flying car (34 ep) Size: Huge, Strength 30, Speed 5 (Flight), Defense: 9, Toughness: 10, Features: Remote Control, Navigation System, Powers: Flight 5 (250 mph speed), Blast 6 (Extra: Autofire), AP: Blast 6 (Extra: Area [burst]) Masterwork Cell Phone [1 ep] costs abilities 44 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 18/72 + feats 26 + powers 18 = 150 pts ----------- Design Notes: Having done several "agents-with-powers" builds, here's a straightforward badass normal superspy, using strong training and the latest in super-gadgets to hold his own among superheroes. He's more in the vein of a James Bond-style agent than anything else, a charismatic, fast-talking superspy who's more inclined to try sweet reason (or sweet ) to persuade the beautiful mad scientist to disarm the giant laser cannon ready to blow up the Moon rather than disarming the device himself, but he's perfectly capable of doing so if called on it in a pinch. He's particularly good at hand-to-hand combat, but he can pull out devices to let him fight at range if he absolutely has to. I figure he uses a lot of Concealment when sneaking into supervillain lairs as well as his so-so Stealth score, probably wearing a special AEGIS stealth suit or whatever else gadgets they've equipped him for this particular mission. I've made him an AEGIS agent, the SHIELD expy of the Freedom City universe, but you can connect him to whatever superagency in-setting that you want. He's got a Nick Fury-style flying car to get around in, because why on Earth wouldn't you ride in one of those if you could? His high Gather Info, Skill Mastery, and Well-Informed means that he's been briefed on most of the threats he's likely to encounter in any given mission, and indeed if the PCs are comfortable with it he may know more about them than they realize is available in the public record. (That auto-25 means he knows most things that aren't buried under an impenetrable layer of secrecy, and some things that are!) His Security Clearance should ideally be a Complication and a Benefit; he can get aid from the government and access to important secrets, but on the other hand his divided loyalty means he may be forced to follow orders, or keep secrets from his teammates, at a very inopportune moment. (Of course, what he should _not_ do is inform on his teammates like the Patriot did back in the 1940s; that's a good way to not be a superhero at all anymore!) The mistrust left over from the Patriots' activities is another good source of Complications, especially among older heroes. Being a government agent hero is a bit problematic in a setting where there are some restrictions on that, but if you specify that he's not acting in a law enforcement capacity (one good way to do that is to give him a mask and secret ID, perhaps as Agent X, or maybe the Invisible Agent if you want a successor to the 1940s-era government agent hero was _not_ a potential traitor to the government!), you should satisfy the loose legal requirements of a comic book setting. Buying him more skills is certainly a good investment, as is potentially buying up his Gadget pool. As it is he can change allocations fast, but he can't pull out anything especially powerful. Another wise investment might be more Equipment, or upgrades to the car. As it is he can fake repairing it with Beginner's Luck and his Gadgets, but in the event of serious damage he's going to be in some trouble. Good thing he has enough points to whip out a wing suit if he has to make an emergency exit in flight!
Avenger Assembled Posted February 1, 2012 Author Posted February 1, 2012 Mystic Knight "There is not one knight in all of Avalon whose heart is less than pure!"-Ystina PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 36 pp STR 18 (+4) DEX 20 (+5) CON 18 (+4) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +9 Grapple: +14 Saves: 10 pp TOU +10 (+4 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +7 (+4 Con, +3) REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 76 r=19 pp Diplomacy 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Intimidate 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 4 (+5) Knowledge (History) 4 (+5) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 4 (+5) Languages 3 (Arabic, English, Latin) (Base: Middle English) Ride 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Survival 4 (+6) Feats: 15 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee 4 Dodge Focus 4 Evasion Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Diplomacy, Intimidate, Ride, Sense Motive) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 45 pp Device 4 (Magic Armor) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [pure of heart]) [17 pp] Enhanced Feats 2 (Ultimate Save 2 [Toughness, Will]) [2dp] Immunity 2 (critical hits) [2dp] Protection 6 (Extra: Impervious 10) [16dp] Device 3 (Magic Sword) (Easy to Lose) (PF: Restricted [pure of heart]) [10 pp] Strike 6 (Extra: Penetrating, PFs: Improved Crit 2, Mighty) [15dp] Dimensional Movement 1 (Camelot) [2 pp] Summon 5 (Pegasus) (Extra: Heroic, PF: Mental Link) [16 pp] costs abilities 36 + combat 24 + saves 10 + skills 19/76 + feats 15 + powers 45= 150 pts -------------------- Design Notes: Having revised my earlier Golden Knight build to be more like an Avalonian Power Ranger, I went ahead and made a more straightforward conversion of the Mystic Knight archetype from Instant Superheroes. The picture is of Ystina, the Modern Age update of the Shining Knight from the work of Grant Morrison. (I'm normally not a fan of Grant Morrison, more the reverse, but Ystina's pretty cool). Inside her armor and astride her horse (just use the stats for Pegasus from Instant Superheroes), she's a solid PL 10 combatant, an invincible medieval tank whose sword can cut through anything and who can shrug off whole legions of archers. (PC level archers will be a threat, though, since they have Power Attack!) Her only innate abilities are summoning her horse from whatever mystic dimension he occupies and returning to her native Camelot. (My concept is that she's an ambassador from Camelot in the Wonder Woman mold, a heroic warrior for justice in the modern world). She's a solid PL 7 combatant without her armor and sword, making her fine company for any tavern-hopping or whatever sort of civvies adventuring you'd like to take her on. She's got Survival as do most of my builds from more primitive cultures, to represent someone who can survive in the wild on her own. Try mixing it up a little; instead of the usual warmed-over Celtic mythology that accompanies this archetype these days, make her a medieval fantasy Catholic from a world where priests routinely whip out crosses to chase demons out of town and the like. That's certainly a lot truer to the cultural roots of the mythos than whatever dubious historical moment may have produced the tales of King Arthur. She's got no Bluff, as that's not the sort of thing your typical fictional knights indulge in. A knight's code does make for a fine set of complications for her; as does pulling off a Sweet Polly Oliver (i.e., Mulan-style gender-passing) in armor. (Why would she keep doing that in the modern era? Well, maybe she feels guilty or dishonorable for lying to her friends from the modern day, so she continues with the deception even after realizing it's not necessary in the modern era) If you don't like the dimensional ambassador background (personally, i like it because it lets you explain the differences between historical times and the generally nice fantasy times that she comes from), having her frozen in a block of ice or transported in a time-traveling spaceship works just fine too...
Avenger Assembled Posted February 1, 2012 Author Posted February 1, 2012 Jackal Necromancer "The dead will rise." Abilities: 40 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 16 (+3) CON 20 (+5) INT 18 (+4) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+9 Melee/+10 Magic) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Grapple: +14 Init: +3 Saves: 11 pp TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+3 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 56 r=14 pp Concentration 8 (+10) Intimidate 6 (+7) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 11 (+15, Skill Mastery) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 6 (+10) Languages 2 (Arabic, English; Base: Ancient Egyptian) Notice 8 (+10, Skill Mastery) Sense Motive 8 (+10, Skill Mastery) Stealth 4 (+7) Survival 3 (+5, Skill Mastery) Feats: 13 pp Attack Focus: Melee, Attack Specialization: Magic, Dodge Focus (4), Evasion, Power Attack, Second Chance (Arcane Lore checks), Skill Mastery (Knowledge [Arcane Lore], Notice, Sense Motive, Survival) Ritualist Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 40 pp Magic Array [22+3=25 pp] Blast 10 (PFs: Indirect 2) AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [burst], PFs: Indirect 2) AP: Drain Charisma 10 (PFs: Indirect 2) AP: Obscure 5 (100 ft) (visual and auditory; Extra: Selective) Protection 3 [3pp] Super-Senses 12 (Accurate Acute Tracking Olfactory, Magic Awareness 3 [olfactory; Enhancement: Acute], Detect Magic 3 [olfactory; Enhancement: Acute]) [12PP] costs abilities 40 + combat 32 + saves 11 + skills 14/56 + feats 13 + powers 40 = 150 pts ---------------- Design Notes: Here's my build for an Anpur, one of the more interesting character types from Green Ronin's Hamunaptra supplement, a mostly-successful attempt to merge the worlds of Egyptian mysticism and Dungeons and Dragons. (Among my favorite bits are the dwarves standing in for the Hebrews as far as a formerly enslaved race who have recently rebelled and set up their own homeland) The general idea with the Anpur is that they are civilized gnolls; after all, in Egyptian culture a canine-headed humanoid doesn't speak to savagery, it speaks to someone with a close connection to Anubis, guardian of the underworld. So the Anpur are serious, lawful individuals with a profound respect for the living and the dead; frequently finding work as embalmers and priests. They would be thoroughly appalled to meet your typical D&D gnoll! So this is basically a canine wizard; he's a decent hand-to-hand combatant (PL 7 offensively in melee) and a good hunter and tracker, as well as a powerful mystic who commands necromantic energies. (He's got the points to summon a mummy if he has to, but it's not something he should be doing regularly) He's in a lot better shape than most of your typical mystics, his furred hide acting as decent armor. He's also a good mystic tracker, his powerful scent abilities letting him fight in the darkness and track mystic threats around the city. If you don't like him as Anubis' champion, either one divinely empowered (perhaps by reciting a magic word, or donning an artifact) or one directly from Anubis's realm as a champion of ma'at, he could do fine as a regular European-style mystic bitten by a werewolf! He doesn't have a mechanical way of disguising himself as a human being, so you might want to buy him some Morph either from a device or a spell, unless you want him going around in a trenchcoat in the best Ben Grimm style.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 2, 2012 Author Posted February 2, 2012 The Arena Earth G-Rand-1 The United States of North America is a grim, cold place on Earth G-Rand-1, the Creators' takeover in 1957 having transformed American society into a stratified place of haves and have-nots, where the children of the rich are told with some assurance that they are genetically destined from birth to rule over the children of the poor, who are on their own shabby tenement taught that their place is to serve. (Those very few poor who do tend to break through the social stratifications set up by 'objective oligarchism' tend to be those who have the most enthusiastically embraced The System, particularly low-level operatives of the Federal Police and the like). The rich live in luxury in mountain estates or carefully controlled super-science mansions, while the poor live beneath the polluted skies of a world where the very idea of a social common good is heresy as great as any other contradiction of orthodoxy. Unfortunately for the ruling class of the USNA, things are beginning to unravel for them. The rise of superheroes in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia in the last forty years (the USNA never had a large hero population; the Centurion's capsule appears to have landed in New Zealand; where the Antonian remains one of the greatest heroes of his world) has meant their economic and military weight no longer has the power it once had: when Britannia can swat down bombers and Dreamtime's spells can run machines without oil or coal, the government in Washington could no longer force their neighbors to deal with their "objectively superior", now mostly-decaying steel and railway-based industries. With people jobless and hungry even by the standards of USNA proletarians, as well as with a growing number of superpowered heroes right there at home, the government was faced with a very serious threat. All that lasted until about ten years ago, when a super-scientist working for one of the USNA's major corporations (a supervillain from Europe who found the conditions in North America much more to his liking) discovered a fairly safe, economical way to open portals between dimensions channeled through the Zero Zone, as well as to use micro-versions of those same portals to scan those dimensions. After some consideration, and a few thefts that boosted their technological base even further (and made that scientist even wealthier), the government hit on a great idea. What the masses needed to still their revolutionary rhetoric than a distraction, and what better for that than the bread and circuses of old? Construction of a massive arena directly beneath Rapture City (the site of our world's Freedom City, renamed after the takeover) began immediately, and just a few years ago the great project began. The general public believes that the New Gladiators are volunteers, soldiers of fortune from exotic Africa, Europe, and even alien civilizations and other dimensions who have come to fight to prove their individual worth in their collective societies from which they originate. The truth is, the New Gladiators are people with superpowers kidnapped from their home worlds and dumped into gladiatorial combat arenas shaped to their particular abilities. The Gladiatorial League keeps them in a solidly built impervium bunker, one laced with nullifying technologies they stole from another world that they'd don't entirely understand, watched over by the best superpowered mercenaries money can buy. Holographic arenas allow for a wide variety of terrain and battles, giving more drama to the watching proles and also helping convince them their government has much more power and respect than they do have if they can command battlefields so far away and contestants so alien. In the grand tradition of evil scientists and megacorporations everywhere, the Gladiatorial League people have no idea of the forces with which they're tampering. Tunneling through the Zero Zone helps them escape detection by the Terminus, and most of their neighboring worlds are grim anarchies where the prospect of fighting and dying for rich rewards (and being dumped back on your home timeline if you win) is enough to keep most of their kidnap victims loyal enough to at least fight, for all that the TV-watching crowd is usually happy to boo a dead coward. But the crowd has begun to grow bored with the never-ending array of new faces, and the head scientist of the League, a tentacled fellow who gets around via a gravity belt of his own design, has ambitions to go even further. If he does reach out to grab heroes from a world with values deeper than survival and greed, he may find he has a real fight on his hands...
Avenger Assembled Posted February 5, 2012 Author Posted February 5, 2012 Sidhe Weapon Master A red sun rises, blood has been spilled this night. Abilities: 36 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 18 (+4) CON 18 (+4) INT 14 (+2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 26/16 (+8/+3) Combat: 30 pp ATK: +7 (+13 Ranged) (+15 Bow) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +12 Grapple: +9 Saves: 10 pp TOU +7 (+4 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +7 (+4 Con, +3) REF +7 (+4 Con, +3) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 18 pp=72 r Acrobatics 11 (+15, Skill Mastery) Bluff 12 (+20, Skill Mastery) Diplomacy 7 (+15) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 3 (+5) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 3 (+5) Intimidate 12 (+20, Skill Mastery) Language 1 (English; Base [Celtic]) Notice 12 (+15, Skill Mastery) Stealth 11 (+15) Survival 2 (+5) Feats: 22 pp Accurate Attack Acrobatic Bluff All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Ranged 6 Attack Specialization: Bows 1 Hide in Plain Sight Improved Initiative 2 Luck 2 Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Intimidate, Notice) Startle Takedown Attack Taunt Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 34 pp Damage 3 (Extra: Ranged, PFs: Improved Crit 2, Improved Range 3 [1 5000 ft range increment]. Mighty 2) 'fae longbow' [13 pp] Fae Array [10+2=12 pp] Enhanced Charisma 10 (to CHA 26/+8) AP: Emotion Control 10 (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [visual]) AP: Mind Control 10 (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [visual]) Flight 1 (PF: Subtle) [3 pp] Protection 3 [3 pp] Super-Senses 3 (Vision [extended] 3 (x1000)) [3 pp] costs abilities 36 + combat 30 + saves 10 + skills 18/72 + feats 22 + powers 34 = 150 pts ------------------------------------------------------------- Design Notes: Here's another one in my series of Changeling: The Dreaming conversions; in this case of a sidhe, the lords and ladies of the Changeling universe. The sidhe are jerks in the grand tradition of the Fair Folk, beautiful princes and princesses who destroyed the democratic fae republic that existed up until the 1970s and re-established a nasty monarchy whose dying grip on fae culture is one of the reasons that the Dreaming itself is dying. (At least, depending on your interpretation of the books!) There were some good guy sidhe, though, people who recognized that being nobility sometimes meant you could actually be noble! Taking a lead from the way the sidhe usually fight, as well as Legolas from Lord of the Rings, I've gone ahead and made this guy a fast, beautiful archer with a magic bow that never goes away. He's a great shot, his superhuman visual acuity letting him pick the wings off a fly from hundreds of feet away. His extreme force of personality and incredible good looks let him crush the will of his enemies through a wide variety of ways. (He's also fast enough to reliably fool mindless creatures who otherwise wouldn't be impressed by his supernatural mojo) His max tradeoff may not seem that impressive, but since he can power attack basically every time and do it from a great range, he's a very serious threat in a fight. He hits his caps if he has to pick up a mundane bow for whatever reason, too. Like Doc's Psychic Ninja, his Flight represents the sort of supernatural (in his case magic) physical acuity that lets him walk along snowbanks without sinking in or running up the sides of an elephant. Mechanically, he's similar to Gloriana, another Algernon Files character I like: she was basically Susan from the Chronicles of Narnia as a superhero; a Blitz evacuee who was imbued as a champion of Fae in order to keep the most uncreative Nazis from overrunning Britain: if you do like the Golden Age connection, add more History and/or an Immunity to aging to make him either a legacy character or the original. Otherwise, origins-wise, he works fine as a generic fae, either an ambassador from Avalon (or a castaway), or perhaps he's a changeling all grown up who has balanced his fae heritage with the human world where he lives.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 11, 2012 Author Posted February 11, 2012 Captain Isabella "We wear our patches upon our sashes and stand cute, small, and strong!" PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 50 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 24 (+7) CON 20 (+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+12 melee) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +17 Saves: 10 pp TOU +7 (+5 Con, +2 Defensive Roll) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +8 (+7 Dex, +1) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 96 r=24 pp Acrobatics 13 (+20, Skill Mastery) Bluff 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Climb 5 (+10) Diplomacy 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Drive 3 (+10) Intimidate 5 (+10) Knowledge (Tactics) 9 (+10) Knowldge (Technology) 2 (+3) Languages 2 (Hebrew, Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Pilot 3 (+10) Sense Motive 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Stealth 3 (+10) Survival 8 (+10) Feats: 27 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 4 Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff) Defensive Roll Dodge Focus 5 Inspire 5 Master Plan 2 Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive) Set-Up Takedown Attack Taunt Track Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 7 pp Device 2 (Sash) (Easy to Lose, PF: Restricted [+20 Acrobatics]) [7 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1dp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1dp] Strike 3 (PFs: Extended Reach, Improved Trip, Mighty) [6+2=8dp] AP: Snare 6 (Flaw: Range [Touch]) AP: Super-Movement 3 (Slow Fall, Super-Movement 1 (Wall-Crawling), Swinging) costs abilities 50 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 24/96 + feats 27 + powers 7 = 150 pts ------------------------------ Design Notes: Returning to my Phineas and Ferb builds, here's Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, the "girl across the street" who not-so-secretly has a terrible crush on Phineas. I've built her as Captain America with a whip, modeling her as the leader of her ever-loyal troop of Fireside Girls (thinly-disguised Girl Scout expies), capable of handling herself in almost any situation. The mechanics of her whip come from the various demonstrations we see of the sash in use, particularly in the Second Dimension where Isabella is the Dragon (and fashionable for once!) to Candace Flynn, head of the anti-Doofenschmirz Resistance. She's from a blended Mexican-Jewish family (her mom presses matzohburritos on people), so she's comfortable in both Mexico City and Jerusalem, but from all we see her native language does seem to be English. With her Master Plan, Inspire (which we see her carry out in the video I linked above), and Set-Up, she's a great team player, easily capable of leading a team of heroes to victory against impossible odds. She can also drive a robot unicorn straight through a gaggle of robots without any problem, help repair an airplane crashed into Paris, and generally pull off most of the tricks we see her carry out on the show. (The Fireside Girls catching a falling Phineas was clearly a power-stunt in an emergency, as well as a fine example of teamwork) She's a bit more outdoorsy than your typical Cap build, since after all her abilities do stem from being a scout: that's also where she gets her Track! She works just fine as a weapon master, a whip specialist who's also a fine hand-to-hand combatant: particularly with the languages where they are, she could easily be an adaptation of Zorro. She could also be a patriotic hero with just a few changes in her skills; perhaps she's the result of a program that gave super-soldiers weapons besides guns as a way of showing that their sponsor nation doesn't need to give their heroes guns to be successful. (It also might help her get around any international treaties about the use of super-weapons!) She'd be a great native hero of Mexico or Israel, if you want to make her not native to the United States.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 11, 2012 Author Posted February 11, 2012 Sluagh Costumed Adventurer "Welcome to my parlor." Abilities: 46 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 24 (+7) CON 20 (+5) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+11 Melee/+15 Unarmed) DEF: +8 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +11 Grapple: +16/+24 w/Elongation Saves: 7 pp TOU +12 (+5 Con, +7 Protection) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+7 Dex) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Acrobatics 13 (+20, Skill Mastery) Gather Information 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Intimidate 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Investigate 4 (+6) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 13 (+20, Skill Mastery) Feats: 17 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 3 Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Challenge 2 (Fast Acrobatic Bluff, Fast Startle) Evasion Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Gather Info, Intimidate, Stealth) Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 30 pp Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand animals; Flaw: [Nocturnal Only]) [2 pp] Comprehend 1 (Spirits) [2 pp] Impervious TOU 8 (Flaw: Limited [Physical Only]) [4 pp] Protection 7 [7 pp] Sluagh Array [8+1+2+2=13 pp] Elongation 8 (1000 ft) [Dynamic] DAP: Insubstantial 1 (fluid) DAP: Super-Movement 4 (Slithering, Slow Fall, Swinging, Wall-Crawling) Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] costs abilities 46 + combat 32 + saves 7 + skills 18/72 + feats 17 + powers 30 = 150 pts --------------- Design Notes: Continuing Changeling: The Dreaming builds, here's my build for a sluagh costumed adventurer. I've tried to build this character as a blend of the traditional mythological sluagh, the Scottish spirits of the restless dead, and the creepy, spidery goths that sluagh tended to be in Changeling. Sluagh tend to be the information-gatherers of the fae world thanks to their habit of silently hanging out and watching everything, so I've built him as a good detective and good sneak. (His ability to talk to nocturnal animals like spiders and rats, as well as to ghosts, is a very good ace in the hole compared to your typical cowl builds) He's a very effective build, something like a low-powered, supernatural-flavored elastic hero with strong training in personal combat. Speaking in whispers only is a good Complication, and suitably creepy for a cowl! He's perfectly at home at night, easily capable of functioning in total darkness and of getting around the city almost undetectably to the human eye. He can take hits much better than your typical cowl, his flexible, stretchy body letting him bounce bullets off his chest. One area of specialization he could use is figuring out whether or not he specializes in mundane or arcane crime; buying up either his Streetwise or his Arcane Lore will be very helpful there! As it is, thanks to his high Gather Info he can function in both worlds, but he's not really a master of either. You could give him a vulnerability or weakness relating to cold iron to get more points, assuming you do want to say that he's the result of fae magic at work in the modern world. He could just be a creepy nightmare powered by the dream dimension too, if you don't want the direct connection to the fae world. You could cut the supernatural stuff entirely and just have this be a spooky elastic hero, perhaps with the idea that he's an Eel O'Brien who was completely under Bruce Wayne's tutelage. As it is, origin-wise perhaps he's a mortal man who decided to become what criminals fear in a very real and literal sense.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 11, 2012 Author Posted February 11, 2012 Armored Patriot "In America!" PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 40 pp STR 30/18 (+10/+4) DEX 20 (+5) CON 18 (+4) INT 16 (+3) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+8 Blast/+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +5 Grapple: +14/+26 Saves: 13 pp TOU +10 (+4 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +8 (+4 Con, +4) REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Craft (Electronic) 7 (+10, Skill Mastery) Craft (Mechanical) 7 (+10, Skill Mastery) Diplomacy 8 (+10) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge (Tactics) 7 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 7 (+10, Skill Mastery) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10, Skill Mastery) Survival 5 (+7) Feats: 15 pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Benefit (Security Clearance) Dodge Focus 4 Evasion Leadership Master Plan 2 Power Attack Skill Mastery (Craft [electronic], Craft [mechanical], Knowledge [technology], Sense Motive]) Takedown Attack Powers: 45 pp Device 11 (Power Armor) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [voiceprint]) [45 pp] Blast 12 (PF: Accurate) 'laser' [25+2=27dp] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Selective Attack, Targeted Area [Cone], Flaw: Action [Full], PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 3) 'missiles' AP: Enhanced STR 12 and Super-Strength 6 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) (PF: Groundstrike) Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6dp] Immunity 5 (disease, environmental radiation, poison, suffocation) [5 pp] Protection 6 (Extra: Impervious) [12dp] Super-Senses 5 (Accurate Extended Radio Sense, Uncanny Dodge [radio]) [5dp] Drawbacks: -4 pp Normal ID (full round action, -4 pp) costs abilities 40 + combat 24 + saves 13 + skills 15/60 + feats 16 + powers 45 - drawbacks 4= 150 pts ------------------------------------------------------ Design Notes: Here's a mashup of a Patriotic Hero and Battlesuit, based on the post-Civil War fake teaser picture of Iron Man wielding Captain America's shield. I think this works just fine as a badass soldier-type inside the latest in top-of-the-line government armor (government-made power armor that isn't very good is something of a staple of the sub-sub-genre; but luckily this guy is badass enough that he's good even in the government-made stuff). He's a solid PL 7 in hand-to-hand without his armor (and given a well-made, high-caliber army weapon, easily capable of being that good with a gun too), but moves up to a nice PL 10 in suit. He's got super-strength, he can fire lasers, and somewhere in there he's got a storm of missiles that can swoop around and take bad guys from behind without hitting any innocent targets around. Thanks to his military training, he's got much higher exotics than your typical battlesuit, though that comes at the cost of a lower INT and fewer skills. He's a gearhead more than a scientist as such. He's a good planner and good leader, though he's not quite as inspiring as those guys who are fighting on the ground level alongside your typical soldier. His suit is rated to stand up to your usual biological/chemical/nuclear weapons, though not really spaceworthy: he's not supposed to be doing that with this government-issued piece of Detroit iron! He's not quite fast enough to keep up with a jet, but there's actually very little aerial combat in most American wars these days; Flight 3 lets him be reasonably effective in urban combat. He's not actually the result of a super-soldier serum, he's strong but not peak human strong, if you want that, reallocate some points or he'll be way too strong inside the suit to meet caps. If you don't like the idea of making him an armored patriot still working for the government, this works just fine as a veteran out of the Army, maybe a mechanic from the military, who put together a suit of power armor on the cheap and went out to go kick some butt on the streets. Letting you drop the various feats derived from working for the governments lets you buy more combat feats, or maybe more abilities that lets you function as a street level guardian.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 12, 2012 Author Posted February 12, 2012 Ape with a Power Ring "Green Ape's Might!" PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 26 pp STR 30 [22] (+10/+6) DEX 14 (+2) CON 20 [16] (+5/+3) INT 12 (+1) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +5 (+4 w/Growth, +8 w/Power Ring) DEF: +5 (+4 w/Growth, +10 w Power Ring) Init: +2 Grapple: +16 w/Move Object, +18 w/Growth Saves: 10 pp TOU +10 (+5 Con, +3 Protection, +2 Defensive ROll) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 48 r=12 pp Climb 4 (+10) Craft (mechanical) 4 (+5) Disguise 0 (+0/+40) Handle Animal 10 (+10) Intimidate 8 (+8/+10 w/size) Languages 2 (French, Swahili; Base: English) Notice 4 (+5) Pilot 8 (+10) Sense Motive 4 (+5) Survival 4 (+5) Feats: 9 pp Animal Empathy Defensive Roll Dodge Focus Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Track Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 69 pp Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand animals, Flaw: Simians Only) [2 pp] Device 11 (Power Ring, Hard to Lose, PF: Restricted [simians]) [45 pp] Blast 12 (PFs: Accurate 2) [26+3=29dp] AP: Create Object 8 (Extra: Movable, PFs: Selective, Stationary) AP: Morph 8 (any humanoid; Extra: Continous, PFs: Covers Scent, Precise) AP: Move Object 12 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) (PFs: Accurate 2) Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6dp] Immunity 9 (life support) [9dp] Impervious TOU 10 (Flaw: Limited [Physical]) [5dp] Shield 6 [6dp] Growth 4 (Large size, Extras: Continuous [+1], Flaws: Permanent [-1], PFs: Innate) [13PP] Leaping 1 (2) [1 pp] Protection 3 [3 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Movement 1 (Swinging) [2 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Low-Light Vision) [2 pp] costs abilities 26 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 12/48 + feats 9 + powers 69 = 150 pts ------------------------------------------------------------- Design Notes: Here's a gorilla with a power ring, based on Doc's Powerhouse with a Power Ring build and Ecal's Animal Scientist build, using the standard mechanics we've hammered out for low-level power rings and gorillas around here. Skill-wise she's basically a simian Hal Jordan, a veteran soldier and pilot and skilled fighter, as well as a mighty gorilla who can scramble up walls, throw motorcycles, and generally monkey around when necessary. (That's terrible, of course; gorills are apes, not monkeys!) He can also talk to other apes, even gibbons, orangs, and chimpanzees! (Though you have to be careful about chimps because all they say is terrible swears!) Unlike a lot of power-ring users, her ring doesn't actually make her tougher, it just shields her from attack. She doesn't need much of a Toughness boost that way, she's already as tough as a mighty ape! She flies decently fast with the ring, at least for urban adventures, and can do the usual blasting, lifting heavy objects, and creating energy barriers that your typical power ring users can. One difference is that her ring also lets her disguise herself as a normal human, or close to it anyway; a good way to maintain something of a normal life despite being an ape in a world of men! She works fine as a native hero of Earth-Ape, perhaps one who has relocated here for personal reasons or as part of a hero exchange program, or you could say she's a native hero of my own Gorilla Island. A tweak would be to make her an uplifted 'normal' gorilla; perhaps she escaped from the secret lab where scientists were experimenting on her brain, taking with her a mysterious space artifact they'd been examining in the test chamber next door! Or maybe the ring is what makes her smart, and you can fold some (but not too much!) Intelligence into the ring and explain that it's an artifact that uplifted her. If you don't like the simian stuff, maybe you can make her a member of a giant alien species; this would work pretty well as a Kilowog expy...
Avenger Assembled Posted February 13, 2012 Author Posted February 13, 2012 Pooka Totem We've made living biological attractions so astounding that they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet. PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 40 [24] (+15/+7) DEX 10 (+0) CON 30 [22] (+10/+6) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+7 melee) (+4 w/Growth, +5 melee) DEF: +7 (+3 flat-footed) (+5 w/Growth [+2 flat-footed)) Init: +3 Grapple: +16/+29 Saves: 12 pp TOU +15/+6 (+10 Con, +5 Protection) (+6 Con) FORT +12/+8 (+10 Con, +2) (+6 Con, +2) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 68 r=17 pp Bluff 10 (+15) Concentration 15 (+17) Disguise 0 (+5/+35) Intimidate 15 (+20/+24) Knowledge (earth sciences) 9 (+10) Knowledge (life sciences) 9 (+10) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 2 (+4) Feats: 11 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee Challenge (Fast Startle) Dodge Focus Power Attack Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers) Startle Takedown Attack Taunt Track [olfactory] Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 50 pp Alternate Form 10 (T-Rex) (Extra: Duration [sustained] (+0)) [50 pp] Drawback: Disability (big head and little arms) [-4 pp] Growth 8 (Huge size) [24 pp] (-2 ATK/DEF, +8 Grapple, -8 Stealth, +4 Intimidate, 16 ft tall, 4K-32K lbs, 15 ft space, 10 ft reach, x2 carrying capacity) Immunity 1 (environmental heat) [1 pp] Morph 6 (+30 Disguise, T-Rex) (PFs: Covers Scent, Precise) [8 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Infravision) [2 pp] Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 180 tons) (PF: Thunderclap [roar]) [9 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 17/68 + feats 11 + powers 50 = 150 pts ------------------------- Design Notes: Continuing my Changeling builds, here's a pooka T-Rex. Roar! Pooks are the tricksters of the fae world, shapeshifters with silver tongues who lack the ability to tell the direct truth. The pooka of song and story can turn into any animal, but the pooka of the modern era are locked into one particular form. While pooka characters are usually small, fluttery animals like bats, foxes, and other 'tricky' creatures, and only living animal species at that (because boo-hoo, extinct animals have no living dreams, boo) but I did some thinking here and if a cheerful eight-year-old boy suddenly developed shapeshifting powers, it would probably be a really awesome animal like a giant T-Rex. At Huge size, he's a little small for a T-Rex, but after all presumably he's not reached his full adult-sized yet! His Morph may not come up very much, since there aren't a lot of chances to pass for a standard T-Rex on the streets of Freedom City these days, but hey he can infiltrate Jurassic Park and the Raptor Empire with the best of them. He's got some saurian immunities that let him be just fine with environmental heat (yes, I know dinosaurs are more birds than lizards, but birds are pretty good in hot weather too) as well as being able to see body heat and track by scent. He's very charismatic and has a tremendous force of personality even when he's not a giant T-Rex; he's great at either fooling or scaring his opponents depending on his needs. (He doesn't have Fearless, if you _can_ scare a giant T-Rex with a +24 Intimidate bonus, good on you!) He should have no trouble catching opponents flat-footed and laying them out with the really massive hits his powers make him capable of. He's also a pretty good fighter, he's a solid PL 6.5 when he's not using his powers, and is in very good shape physically. He's got good skills too; he could reasonably pass for some paleontologist or geologist with dinosaur-themed powers. If you don't like the fae shapeshifter angle, maybe he found a mystic artifact on a dig that gave him a connection to some ancient dinosaur civilization with the physical abilities to match. He might just be someone who really liked dinosaurs and who developed awesome superpowers to match. He could be the result of sinister experimentation; perhaps he was empowered by secret Serpent People experimentation for dire purposes! (Perhaps there was a connection there; did an asteroid destroy an ancient Serpent People civilization sixty-five million years ago? It could be!!!) Or maybe he's an infiltrator from the Raptor Empire hiding in plain sight on behalf of his saurian masters!
Avenger Assembled Posted February 14, 2012 Author Posted February 14, 2012 Boggan with a Power Ring "Let Those Who Worship Evil's Might, Beware My Power: The One Ring's Might!" PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 18 (+4) DEX 18 (+4) CON 16 (+3) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+7 melee, +8 Magic) DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed, +1 Shield) Init: +8 Grapple: +11 Saves: 12 pp TOU +12 (+3 Con, +4 Defensive Roll, +5 Protection) FORT +7 (+3 Con, +4) REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 80 r=20 pp Bluff 7 (+10) Climb 6 (+10) Craft (structural) 9 (+10) Diplomacy 7 (+10) Gather Info 12 (+15) Intimidate 7 (+10) Language 1 (Celtic; Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 6 (+10) Swim 6 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 14 pp Attack Focus: Melee 3 Defensive Roll 2 Dodge Focus 3 Power Attack Quick Draw [Draw] Second Chance (Gather Info checks) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 54 pp Device 1 (Sword, Hard to Lose) (PF: Indestructible) [5 pp] Strike 3 (PFs: Improved Crit, Mighty) [5dp] Device 11 (Power Ring; Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [fae blooded]) [45 pp] Concealment 4 (all visual) (PF: Close Range) [9dp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2dp] Immunity 5 (disease, poison, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [5dp] Mystic Array [26+2=28dp] Blast 12 (PFs: Accurate 2) AP: Mind Control 10 (PFs: Mind Link, Subtle) AP: Enhanced Strike 6 (Extra: Penetrating 6; PFs: Improved Crit, Knockback 9 [DMG 19], Mighty) Protection 5 [5dp] Shield 1 [1dp] Super-Senses 5 (Magic Awareness 3 [visual], Undead Awareness 2 [visual]) [5dp] Quickness 4 (x25) [4pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 16 + saves 12 + skills 20/80 + feats 14 + powers 54 = 150 pts ----------------------------------------------------------------- Design Notes: Here's yet another Changeling: The Dreaming build, this time for a boggan, who are basically the shoemaker-elves of myth and legend. They're generally short, cheerful people who love parties and a simple, homey lifestyle; in other words, they're hobbits! From there it was a simple enough leap to throw in elements of Frodo Baggins, making this a Ring-Bearer who has learned to master the One Ring rather than being mastered by it. He has the usual boggan craftsman abilities, except he's focused on making and fixing swords (and smithcraft in general) rather than the usual more peaceful pursuits of his kind. He's a competent swordsman and skilled social player without the ring, easily capable of fighting large groups of low-level orcs with frequent use of social manipulation and stealth. One thing he doesn't have is Impervious, but thanks to his Concealment (which he can fight under) he has to worry a lot less about taking hits while in combat. The Mind Control on his ring is a nod to the effects of the ring in-universe, but of course you don't have to take it as anything so sinister! He's a hero, and his use of the powers to compel bad guys to stand down isn't immoral if used for heroic purposes. He goes from a balanced swordsman to a very tough, hard-hitting fighter with the ring; I modeled that massive strike on the scenes early in Lord of the Rings where Sauron at the height of his powers battered whole armies like a kid playing tee-ball. I figure his ring's Strike adds to his sword's blade, turning it into a blue glowing blade that can slice through almost any threat. With his high Quickness, he can fix his broken sword in record time, and build things. He's not a straight hobbit conversion, of course, he'd need Shrinking 4 for that. Perhaps he's a domestic-minded fellow driven to heroism by the depredations of outlaws and brigands in his own neighborhood, carrying a mighty blade of his own crafting, and then made even more powerful by the ring he rescued from the forces of evil!
Avenger Assembled Posted February 14, 2012 Author Posted February 14, 2012 Nocker Battlesuit "Mindinfarbin' SMASH!" PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 10 pp STR 40 [32] [20] [10] (+15/+11/+5/+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 24 [20] [10] (+7/+5/+0) INT 20 (+5) WIS 10 (+0) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+5 w/Growth) DEF: +6 (+5 w/Growth) Init: +0 Grapple: +31 max Saves: 14 pp TOU +15/+0 (+7 Con, +3 Density, +5 Protection) FORT +10/+3 (+7 Con, +3) REF +4 (+0 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+0 Wis, +7) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Craft (Electronic) 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Craft (Mechanical) 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Intimidate 15 (+15/+17) Knowledge (Technology) 15 (+20, Skill Mastery) Languages 2 (German, Russian; Base: English) Notice 10 (+10, Skill Mastery) Sense Motive 10 (+10) Feats: 10 pp All-Out Attack Beginner's Luck Challenge (Fast Startle) Eidetic Memory Inventor Jack of all Trades Power Attack Skill Mastery (Craft [electronic], Craft [mechanical], Knowledge [Technology], Notice) Startle Takedown Attack Powers: 74 pp Device 18 (Nocker Mech, Hard to Lose) (PFs: Restricted 2 [pilot]) [74 pp] Density 6 (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0], PF: Innate) [19dp] +12 STR, +3 IMP TOU, +2 Immovable, +2 Super-Strength, x5 Mass Enhanced CON 10 [10dp] Enhanced STR 10 [10dp] Flight 5 (250 MPH) [Dynamic] [10+1+2=13 pp] DAP: Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 96 tons) (PFs: Groundstrike, Shockwave) Growth 4 (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0], PF: Innate) [13dp] -1 ATK/DEF, +4 Grapple, -4 Stealth, +2 Intimidate, x2 Carrying Capacity Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9dp] Impervious TOU 7 [7dp] Protection 5 [5dp] Super-Senses 4 (Danger Sense [radio], Infravision, Ultrahearing, Uncanny Dodge [radio]) [4dp] costs abilities 10 + combat 24 + saves 14 + skills 18/72 + feats 10 + powers 74 = 150 pts ----------------------------------- Design Notes: Here's another Changeling: The Dreaming build, in this case a nocker, the cranky gadgeteers of the fae world. They're basically spirits of engineering and creativity, born from the frustration of builders. Taking nocker frustration at face value, as well as the fact that they are usually physically non-threatening, I went ahead and built a nocker with a battlesuit, though in this case it's more like a mini-mech: a giant flying suit of armor, covered in thick bulletproof plates. Not much finesse here; his super-senses are light and he doesn't have any options for ranged attack built-in; this is a battlesuit for people who want to kick around their enemies in a very real and meaningful sense! (If you do want to hit targets at range, just have him scoop up a car and throw it to hit his targets) With his size and his Takedown Attack, he should have no problem sweeping goons as well as fighting it out with the big boys. He's pretty squishy without the suit, a good reason for him to keep it handy somewhere whenever he goes out on the town. (That's why he doesn't have a Normal ID drawback, he keeps his battlesuit close so he can punch out his enemies!) Note that his powers make him very, very heavy; with his Density and Growth, he easily weighs as much as a car or more, and so he'll have to be pretty careful where he steps if he has to get around inside. That's why he's got Flight, so he can at least hover in theory, loud as it is. He doesn't have a lot of wealth, I picture him as a crabby street-level genius who built himself a giant suit of battle armor so he could take care of the criminals who bedeviled him while trying to go about his business. He's not actually Fearless, but he's got a massive enough Intimidate bonus that most people aren't going to scare him anyway. He doesn't have the social skills to be Tony Stark, but with some tweaking he could be good at something besides cussing people out with gusto. (One thing to consider adding is more Bluff and Taunt, so he can trash-talk people who aren't scared of the giant monster guy in the suit; most NPCs aren't Fearless, but it does let you tear down high-Intimidate guys) He's got the feats to be a decent gadgeteer and tech guy even when he's working in areas outside of his engineering field, with +5 to Investigate and other Intelligence checks depending on where he's working.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 22, 2012 Author Posted February 22, 2012 Patriotic Throwing Master "It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice." -Henry A. Wallace PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 38 pp STR 16 (+3) DEX 18 (+4) CON 18 (+4) INT 18 (+4) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+12 Ranged) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +8 Grapple: +9 Saves: 13 pp TOU: +8 (+4 Con, +4 Defensive Roll) FORT: +8 (+4 Con, +4) REF: +8 (+4 Dex, +4) WILL: +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 88 r=22 pp Acrobatics 11 (+15, Skill Mastery) Bluff 4 (+5) Diplomacy 9 (+10, Skill Mastery) Knowledge (arcane lore) 11 (+15) Knowledge (civics) 11 (+15) Knowledge (earth sciences) 11 (+15) Knowledge (life sciences) 11 (+15) Languages 6 (Chinese 2 [Cantonese, Mandarin], German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish; Base: English) Notice 7 (+10, Sense Motive) Sense Motive 7 (+10, Sense Motive) Feats: 29 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Ranged 6 Benefit (Status) Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff) Connected Defensive Roll 2 Dodge Focus 6 Eidetic Memory Evasion Improved Initiative Power Attack Precise Shot Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Notice, Sense Motive) Sneak Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 25 pp Throwing Stuff Array (PF: Innate, Drawback: Power Loss: Medium [-1])[24+1-1+1=25 pp] Blast 6 (Extras: Autofire, PFs: Improved Crit 2, Indirect 2, Ranged Pin, Variable Descriptor 1 [bludgeoning/piercing/slashing]) AP: Damage 6 (Extras: Targeted Area [shapeable], Selective, PFs: Ranged Pin, Variable Descriptor 1 [bludgeoning/piercing/slashing]) costs abilities 38 + combat 24 + saves 13 + skills 21/84 + feats 29 + powers 25 = 150 pts ---------------- Design Notes: Polymath agriculturalist, political progressive, and Vice-President of the United States, Henry A. Wallace was probably the smartest VPOTUS of the 20th century. A member of the Wallace family of Iowa, his grandfather and father among the most important agriculturalists of the 19h and 20th centuries, Wallace had a long and distinguished career; editor of Wallace's Farmer, inventor of modern strains of hybrid corn and chickens, he became FDR's Secretary of Agriculture in 1933 and Vice- President in 1940. A genius and polymath, Wallace was a man with contacts everywhere, a restless soul who moved from hobby to hobby whenever the mood struck him. (His most famous interest was his dabbling with European mysticism in the person of Russian emigre Nicholas Roerich, a man with whom Wallace would later break vigorously). Wallace had the misfortune of being too advanced in his ideas; in 1944, he was too honest for Northern political bosses and too anti-racist for Southern Dixiecrats, and was dumped in favor of Harry Truman as FDR's VP. He badly misjudged the tenor of the times afterwards, and in 1948 ran as a candidate of the anti-Cold War Progressive Party, never quite realizing why all these people with Russian accents were supporting his campaign, and returned in disgust to his business, Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn, afterwards. (For those interested in learning more about Henry Wallace's remarkable life, check out John C. Culver's American Dreamer: The Life and Times of Henry A. Wallace [2002]) So, naturally, after seeing the above picture of Henry Wallace practicing with boomerangs in 1940, it was a natural step to build him as a patriotic marksman, a skilled shot who can pick off a target with a well-thrown boomerang or knock down a horde of enemies with a storm of thrown objects. What the heck, I just missed Presidents' Day, and Wallace just missed being President. This works fine as a build for a marksman hero who has gone into semi-retirement and pursued a career in politics, one who is a little out of shape but is still a good man to have on your side in a fight. He also makes an interesting NPC in a Golden Age game, perhaps Vice-President Wallace seemed so flaky and unreliable to outsiders because he was busy leading the secret arcane war between the US and Germany!
Avenger Assembled Posted February 22, 2012 Author Posted February 22, 2012 Vampire Infernalist I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire! -Nicholas Cage PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 4 pp STR 30/14 (+10/+2) DEX 14 (+2) CON n/a (-) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 18/12 (+4/+1) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+8 Hellfire Array, +10 Overrun) DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed) Grapple: +6/+18 Initiative +2 Saves: 10 pp TOU +12 (+10 Protection, +2 Defensive Roll) FORT n/a REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 15 pp=60 r Bluff 14 (+15/+18) Disguise 0 (+1/+4/+24) Drive 8 (+10) Intimidate 14 (+15/+18) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 4 (+5) Knowledge (History) 4 (+5) Notice 4 (+6) Sense Motive 4 (+6) Ride 8 (+10) Feats: 11 pp Defensive Roll, Dodge Focus 4, Fast Overrun, Move-By Action, Startle, Taunt, Ultimate Save (Will), Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 102 pp Obfuscate Array [8+1-1=8 pp] (Drawback: Not in Sunlight [-1]) Concealment 4 (all visual) AP: Morph 4 (any humanoid) Presence Array [6+1-1=6 pp] (Drawback: Not in Sunlight [-1]) Enhanced Charisma 6 (to CHA 18 (+4)) (PF: Fascinate [bluff]) AP: Emotion Control 10 (Flaw: Limited [Fear Only]) Hellfire Array 12 (PFs: Accurate 2, Alternate Powers 2) (Drawback: Not in Sunlight) [24+2+2-1=27 pp] BE: Blast 12 AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Selective, Targeted Area [Trail], Flaw: Action [Full], PFs: Accurate, Progression 3 on Area) AP: Enhanced STR 16 and Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Impervious TOU 6 (Flaw: Not Vs. Blessed/Silver/Wood) [3 pp] Protection 6 [6 pp] Protection 4 (Extra: Impervious; Flaw: Not Vs. Blessed/Silver/Wood]) [4 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3 pp] Speed 5 (250 MPH) [5 pp] Super-Movement 3 (Wall-Crawling 2, Water-Walking) (Flaw: Only While Moving) [3 pp] Super-Senses 5 (Darkvision, Detect Evil 3 [visual]) [5 pp] Drawbacks: -7 pp Vulnerable (vs holy) (uncommmon, major) [-3 pp] Weakness (Repelled by Crosses; stunned by Charisma check vs. holy items) [-4 pp] costs abilities 4 + combat 16 + saves 10+ skills 15/60- + feats 10 + powers 102 - drawbacks 7 = 150 pts ------------------------------------------- Design Notes: Based on the Baali bloodline from Vampire: The Masquerade, Nicholas Cage's role as the titular character in the recent Ghost Rider movies, Doc's Vampire Gadgeteer build, as well as the recent online meme about Nicholas Cage being a vampire (based on the 19th century picture above that does bear a striking resemblance to the actor in his younger years) I present a vampire infernalist! He's a powerful character with a lot of strong abilities; a master social manipulator and sneak who can easily hide himself, present to be almost anyone, dominate most social settings, and also hurl flaming chains to batter his foes. (Bludgeoning unholy damage, anyone?) His ride is some sort of demonic horse or motorcycle, take your pick, one that can easily run up walls or across bodies of water, that can break the sound barrier when he goes fast enough. He can also just punch people with enhanced demonic strength, though he's only PL 7 in melee with it, and may be better off using that strength for carrying people around on his ride. His infernal powers provide some protection against sunlight (though it does weaken him significantly) at the cost of making him extremely vulnerable to the holy symbols that are the usual bane of vampires and demons alike: if he runs into someone who knows what he is, he's screwed. He's not particularly vulnerable to fire, either, another gift from his infernal influence. Note that Detect Evil is not recommended for a superhero game, but given his nature I think it's likely that most of the bad guys he'll fighting will be very evil indeed. My take on this character is that he was a criminal; either an Old West outlaw or a modern-day biker, betrayed and left for dead by his so-called allies. He cursed God in his despair and was found out by a particularly cruel, cunning vampire skilled in the arts of sorcery, one who transformed him and taught him the rudiments of the black arts: he realized he had no desire to follow his 'master's' path, though, and fled as soon as he could into the night. He despaired for a while, living in secret, but decided he could do good in his new life to make up for his many sins: maybe it was too late to make up for all the bad things he'd done and pacts he'd signed, but perhaps he could make sure no other unwary souls fell down the path he had! With his Startle and Taunt, he's great at social manipulation and debuffing his enemies, his devil's tongue letting him tear down even those foes who are tough enough to stand up to his scary powers. If you don't like the vampire infernalist angle, this character is a decent enough build for a vampire mage with some tweaks to his abilities and feats. You could invert the concept entirely: Perhaps he's a vampire who has reached some inner peak of enlightment and now uses his abilities to free his brethern and humans from sin, firing beams of holy. healing light out of his third eye, with the downside of being especially vulnerable to infernalism and dark magic thanks to his blessed nature.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 25, 2012 Author Posted February 25, 2012 Vampire Ape With A Power Ring "They called me mad!" PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 12 pp STR 30 [22] (+10/+6) DEX 14 (+2) CON n/a INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +5 [+4 w/Growth, +8 w/Ring blasts] DEF: +10 [+4 w/Growth, +6 w/Ring shield] Init: +2 Grapple: +14/+16 Saves: 7 pp TOU +14 (+10 Protection, +4 Ring) FORT n/a REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 44 r=11 pp Climb 4 (+10, Skill Mastery) Intimidate 13 (+14/+15, Skill Mastery) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 2 (+2) Language 1 (English; Base: Romanian) Notice 8 (+10, Skill Mastery) Sense Motive 8 (+10, Skill Mastery) Survival 8 (+10) Feats: 5 pp Challenge 2 (Accelerated Climb, Fast Startle) Power Attack Skill Mastery (Climb, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive) Startle Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 103 pp Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand animals) [4 pp] Device 9 (Power Ring, Hard to Lose, PF: Restricted [apes]) [36 pp] Blast 12 (PFs: Accurate 2) [26+1=27 dp] AP: Move Object 12 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) (PFs: Accurate 2) Feature 7 (Buys Off Sunlight Drawback) [7dp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2dp] Protection 4 [4dp] Shield 2 [2dp] Super-Senses 3 (Detect Magic 3 [visual]) [3dp] Growth 4 (Extra: Duration [Permanent], PF: Innate) [13 pp] Immunity 30 (Fort Saves) [30 pp] Protection 4 (Extra: Impervious, Flaw: Not Vs. Fire/Silver/Magic) [4 pp] Protection 6 [6 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Movement 1 (Swinging) [2 pp] Super-Senses 3 (Acute Scent, Darkvision) [3 pp] Drawbacks: -10 pp Weakness (Holy Symbols; dazed by charisma check vs. holy symbols) [-3 pp] Weakness (Sunlight; destroyed in 1 minute) [-7 pp] costs abilities 12 + combat 24 + saves 7 + skills 11/44 + feats 5 + powers 103 -drawbacks 10= 150 pts ----- Design Notes: Look, I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 25, 2012 Author Posted February 25, 2012 Earth A-Green-90 (Draft) On Earth A-Green-90, superhumans stayed out of the public eye for many, many years. There were instances of fantastic stories throughout history; bears mystically empowered to battle dark sorcery during the Anarchy in England in the mid-1100s, another sorcerer whose wars against azure-skinned gnomes became legend in the Renaissance, and a great many others, but true superhumans first appeared in the public eye in the late 1980s. It started small at first: the Serpent People Warriors of the New York underground, the super-soldiers of Action Force and their nemesis the Terror Tarantulas, spiraling wider as wormholes were discovered to alien worlds after Halley's Comet struck a gateway and exploded in space, in one an American astronaut became a warrior queen, in another cyborg warriors battled a world-conquering tyrant in a future age of awe and wonder. Though the period was one of grim darkness on Earth-Prime, on Earth A-Green-90, the 1980s and 1990s were an age of fantastic wonder and imagination. The greatest of all the new age of heroes were the Guardians: six teenagers selected for greatness by the psychic gestalt spirit of Earth itself, Gaia. Wearing mystic armor bonded to the elemental forces of the world, they became the champions of a new age. There was Burton, the American, with the power of wood, Joey, the Australian, with the power of metal, Gina, the Brazilian, with the power of water, Pavel, the Russian, with the power of earth, Elizabeth, the Kenyan, with the power of fire, and Li, the Laotian, with the power of the Void. Guided by Gaia's wisdom and with the power to combine into the mighty giant Planet, the avatar of the elements united, they remade the world. Forests sprung up again where they had been clear-cut, scrapyards and junkheaps cleaned themselves up, mountains torn up by mining grew up again, rivers flowed into the desert, elemental fire heated homes and buildings, and the power of the void brought rain and snow across the planet. Those were good years. But as the Guardians aged, things grew more complicated; the mystic power they'd tapped with their armor spilled out across the world in a gradual corruption even more insidious than the polluters and dark wizards they'd fought as young people: lab animals gained tremendous and terrible intellects, whole towns of people were mutated into jaundiced sociopaths, and three terrible _things_ rose from downtown Los Angeles on the old Warner lot to wreak havoc through California. Though the Guardians did what they could to save lives and help, their powers only amplified their world's growing magical blight. They finally resigned their posts, leaving behind Planet, when one great blight swept across a seaside city, transforming millions of people into avian humanoids the like of which had never before been seen on Earth. Things did get better after they retired, only using their elemental powers for emergencies and to save lives, but there would be no easy solutions for this magical contamination: the very soul of the planet had been corrupted. At least, that's what it seemed until just a few months ago, when Li called the Guardians back together for one last great adventure. She had tapped deeply into the Void in retirement, going deeper than the others in her mastery of the element that had always been hers to control, and she had found something wonderful there: a clean, pure energy that could burn away the magical contamination of the world, giving the Guardians a chance to resume their old work as heroes and guides of the world, while not incidentally making life better for all the people of the globe. Only Burton was suspicious; the American had never been terribly bright or terribly observant as a teenager, but as an adult he had taught himself to think things through more carefully: where had this power come from? Had they practiced any in its use? But the others, eager to resume their old lives and save people again, made the fateful choice to go on without him. Burton left Gaia Island behind and headed home to his native New Jersey. And so the Guardians gathered together, once again wearing their armor, and opened up a portal to the very heart of the Void at the center of the magic of their world. And then the Omegadrones came.
Avenger Assembled Posted February 25, 2012 Author Posted February 25, 2012 Mandragora, Dragon of the Terminus Mandragora, Dragon of the Terminus, is uncomfortable around Omegadrones. Personally, they offend what remains of the sensibilities of Techno-Chivalry deep within his breast, strategically, they are tools created by his enemy Shadivan Steelgrave and their use lets Steelgrave sink his formidable talons into Mandragora's breast through the network of favors that is how Annihilists negotiate amongst themselves. When assigned to command them, he takes pains to use them up, happily sacrificing millions to snuff out a few hundred resistors. He prefers to rely on his dragons in combat, whether the heart-sworn servants who are descended from his old retainers or even better, the black-hued dragons raised in the heart of the Terminus itself. Perhaps because of this, his conquests tend to be a of a very different flavor than his rivals among Omega's vassals. When Mandragora lays siege to a world in Omega's name, he doesn't come to break the will of their heroes or transform their population: he comes to cleanse that world's surface in the ultimate flame of the Doom Coil. He makes his jaunts from the Terminus aboard his great dragon-headed starship, bombarding worlds from orbit before descending into the atmosphere to cleanse their surface in fire and flame. The dragons that are his vassals these days breathe black Terminus flame instead of true fire, their scaly hides obsidian black as they stalk dying worlds, incinerating all life in gouts of terrible black flame and gleefully devouring the ashes left behind. Mandragora himself only descends into personal combat when a conquest is threatened or when he has been personally challenged; after all, that's the time when he truly feels alive, when he can allow himself to believe that he is still the warrior-born he once was rather than the servant of gigagenocide that he has become. His retainers, generally clad in red lacquer armor bearing his golden dragon seal, their faces hidden behind masks, spend most of their time in his tower on Nihilor when they have not been deployed into battle. Their humanity has not led them to mercy: rather, they are intimately aware of the price of failure, and know that should they betray their master he will slay them with his own hands before the eyes of their family rather than allow them to weaken the others (and thus him) with other Annihilists through 'softness'. Carefully kept away from the proles, many of Mandragora's retainers believe that with the death of their world, they and the surviving dragons have become guardians of Hell, punishing the wicked and destroying worlds that have fallen into sin. He lets them believe this; knowing the alternative would be far worse...
Avenger Assembled Posted March 3, 2012 Author Posted March 3, 2012 Impundulu You shall pay, black prince. I shall place a curse of suffering on you that will doom you to a living hell. PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 12 pp STR 30/14 (+10/+2) DEX 14 (+2) CON n/a (-) INT 16 (+3) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Impundulu Powers) DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed) Grapple: +7/20 Initiative +6 Saves: 8 pp TOU +12 (+4 Protection, +8 Protection) FORT n/a REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 12 pp=48 r Bluff 8 (+10) Handle Animal 8 (+10) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 2 (+5) Languages 3 (Afrikaans, English, Xhosa: Base: Zulu) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 9 pp Dodge Focus 4, Improved Initiative, Luck, Move-By Action, Precise Shot, Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 95 pp Drain Constitution 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1 pp] Flight 2 (25 MPH/250 fps) (PF: Subtle, Drawback: Restrainable) [4 pp] Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Impundulu Array 15 (PFs: Accurate 2) [32+2=34 pp] BE: Enhanced Feats 6 (Improved Crit 2 [unarmed], Incurable, Precise, Variable Descriptor 1 [bludgeoning/piercing/slashing] [6] and Enhanced STR 16 (to STR 30/+10) [16] and Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) [8] 'avian body' AP: Blast 10 LINKED Dazzle 10 (auditory) (PFs: Indirect 2) 'lightning' AP: Teleport 9 (900 ft/anywhere on Earth) (Extra: Accurate, PFs: Change Direction, Change Velocity, Easy, Progression, Turnabout) 'riding the lightning' Protection 8 (Extra: Impervious 6) [14 pp] Protection 4 (Extra: Impervious, Flaw: Not Vs. Fire/Magic/Silver) [4 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3 pp] Super-Senses 5 (Darkvision, Detect Magic 3 [visual]) [5 pp] Drawbacks: -6 pp Vulnerable (vs. holy) [uncommon, major] [-3 pp] Weakness (dazed by Charisma check vs. holy items) [-3 pp] costs abilities 12 + combat 20 + saves 8 + skills 12/48 + feats 9 + powers 95 -drawbacks 6= 150 pts ----------------------------- Design Notes: Going international with my vampire builds, here's an impundulu, the "Lightning Bird" vampires of southern Africa. (The picture is of Blacula, the most famous African vampire. It's a surprisingly not awful movie, largely because of William Marshall's dignified performance) The impundulu takes the form of a man-sized black and white bird, with the power to summon lightning and thunder from its wings, travel along lightning currents, and slash and bite with its huge claws and beak. So this guy can fly on bird's wings, transform himself into a feral-looking avian wrecking machine, his his enemies with bolts of lightning out of the sky, or turn into lightning to get around incredibly fast. (Why fly when you can lightning? Well, he's a lot more quiet on Hammerkop wings than he is as a bolt from the blue!) Impundulu are often associated with witches, so I've given him the ability to see magic by concentrating on it. I couldn't find any evidence the impundulu had trouble with sunlight (a pretty lethal drawback in a culture without buildings!), so I just gave him the usual aversion to holy magic and holy items. I took the mechanics for his claws (the Variable Descriptor) from Doc's Benadanti build: he can pummel with undead strength, bite with fangs, or slash with great avian claws. (He doesn't have Morph on his Hammerkop form, because a six-foot wading bird with a man's mass pretty clearly is nothing natural, even in the World of Freedom. Mechanics-wise, my theory is that this guy used to be a hunter or park ranger in one of South Africa's many national parks, where he was attacked and transformed by one of the last surviving impundulus, his maker having been driven there by constant Boer warfare against Africans in the 19th and 20th centuries. Fighting hard, he mastered his hungers and has come to Freedom City looking for a cure! You could make him a Mighty Whitey American, I suppose, but I think the character works best as someone native to South Africa, one way or another. He makes a fine villain, transplanted into a new land to rule it as his people once did his native soil. He makes a nice surprise for people who expect vampires to turn into bats!
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