Quintessence (PL 11) - Paragon

[Paragon]

Player Name: Paragon

Character: Quintessence

Power Level: 11 (158/162PP)

Trade-Offs: -2 Attack / +2 Damage

Unspent PP: 4

Progress To Bronze Status: 12/30

In Brief: James Roderick gained his powers when he rescued an alien from a crashed spaceship. The alien called himself a preserver and thanked him by pushing him to the peak of human evolution. At the end of the process he became Quintessence.

Alternate Identity: James L. Roderick

Identity: Secret

Birthplace : New Haven, Connecticut

Occupation: Student; Sophomore, Freedom City University

Affiliations: None

Family : Father: Robert Roderick, Deceased Mother: Katherine Roderick, Deceased Sister: Jennifer Roderick, Alive

Age: 22 (DoB: March 8, 1989)

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Height: 6’3â€

Weight: 480 lbs

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Brown

Description: Quintessence is a solidly built man several inches over average height, and is very heavily muscled. For such a large man he moves with a grace that many dancers would envy. Quintessence has light brown hair shorn close to his head and pale blue eyes. When in costume Quintessence favors pale blue sleevless tights. He has a dark grey leather cape that come down to the back of his knees and a jerkin made of the same material. He also wears heavy black boots and a reflective visor covering his eyes.

Power Description : Quintessence’s powers are an extension of his natural abilities. He was enhanced by an alien race called the Preservers when he saved the life of one after a spaceship crashed on earth. The Preservers told Quintessence that he was using genetic manipulation to accelerate his evolution. While the results are unpredictable from human to human they always produce a being of extraordinary powers. In the case of Quintessence it greatly increased his strength and constitution. It also gave him the ability to defy gravity. His skin looks the same, but is much harder. It is able to deflect most damage. Mentally few things changed for him other than a heightened resistance to influence.

History : James Roderick grew up just outside of New Haven Connecticut. His father was a New Haven Police officer. His mother was a theoretical physicist working for Yale university. James has a sister two years younger than himself. He is highly protective of his sister. She is the only family he has left. Growing up the family often went on family vacations. Their favorite was always camping. Once a year the family would go to Maine and go camping on some land the family owned in the wilderness. It was on one such outing on the summer before his freshman year of school at FCU that James’s life changed forever.

While James and Jennifer were hiking through the woods they saw something that looked like a shooting star in the sky. As they watched the sky the object got larger. After a few minutes they realized that it was not a shooting star but something crashing to the ground. Thinking it was a plane crash James told his sister to run to the road and try and get a cell phone reception. James then went back to the campsite. While he was on his way back through the woods he lost sight of the object and several seconds later he heard a crash. When he reached his camp site he found a smoking ruin with no sign of his parents. He rushed into the wreckage looking for any sign of life. While searching through the site James found a body covered in soot and ash. Picking the body up, he carried them out of the flaming debris. Only moments later there was a large explosion. James and the person he had rescued were thrown clear. James carried the form to safety only after he put him down by the shore of the lake did he realize the form was not a human being. The form in front of him was an alien. He had never seen anything like it. At that moment the creature opened its eyes. “I thank you for saving my life human†it said directly into his mind. “It is rare in the universe a being shows a concern for another being without thinking of the consequences to themselves. I am of a race called the Preservers. We have long been absent from this place. I cannot undo the harm I may have done in the crash, but I can reward you†said the creature. That was when it took something out of a pouch at its hip. It then stabbed James in the shoulder, and everything went dark.

When James woke he was in a hospital bed. Jennifer was sitting in a chair next to him. She was asleep. The sun was low in the sky outside. James sat up and groaned every part of his body hurt. When he groaned his sister woke up. That was when he learned that his life would never be the same. His parents were dead. The police had told Jennifer that a small private plane had been hit by lightning and crashed into their campsite. James took up the roll of Quintessence to continue the work his father felt so strongly about, to protect the innocent and punish the guilty.

Personality & Motivation : James took on the persona of Quintessence soon after he started his sophomore year at FCU. Quintessence fights for justice and to protect the innocent. James had idolized his father for going out every day and risking his life to help people. Without any powers his father had gone out into a world with supervilians, Aliens and other unknown threats every day. Once James realized he had these powers he felt he had no choice but to continue his father’s work. Every time he has a moral dilemma he thinks about the values his father instilled in him. As long as he lives by that he will never be lost.

Powers & Tactics : Most of the time Quintessence is very straight forward. He is direct to a fault. He dislikes subterfuge, and takes obstacles head on.

---

Complications :

Struggling: James Roderick is a poor college student struggling to make ends meet.

Relationship: James Lives with his sister Jennifer who does not know about his powers.

Secret: Identity

Abilities : 18 + 10 + 18 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 54PP

Strength: 28/34 (+9/+12)

Dexterity: 20 (+5)

Constitution: 28 (+9)

Intelligence: 12 (+1)

Wisdom: 14 (+2)

Charisma: 12 (+1)

Combat : 8 + 10 = 18PP

Initiative: +5

Attack: +8 Melee, +4 Ranged, Unarmed +10

Grapple: +20/+26

Defense: +10 (+5 Base, +5 Dodge Focus), +5 Flat-Footed,

Knockback: -10/-12 with immovable

Saving Throws: 0 + 1 + 5 + 8= 14PP

Toughness: +10 (+9 Con, +1 Density [+10 Impervious])

Fortitude: +10 (+9 Con, +1)

Reflex: +10 (+5 Dex, +5)

Will: +10 (+2 Wis, +8)

Skills: 24R = 6PP

Acrobatics 6 (+10)

Physical Science 6 (+7)

Notice 6 (+8)

Sense Motive 6 (+8)

Feats : 14PP

Attack Focus (melee) 4

Attack Specialization (Unarmed) 1

Dodge Focus 5

Fearless

Move-by-action

Power Attack

Uncanny Dodge (Sight)

Equipment : 0PP

Powers: 9 + 12 + 1 + 13 + 9 + 8 = 52PP

Density 3(Extras: Permanent ) [9PP] (+6 Str, Immovable 1, Protection 1 [impervious], Super Strength 1) (Hard Body)

Flight 6 (Flight, 500 mph, 4400 ft/rnd) [12PP]

Immovable 1 (Total Immovable 2, [Resist Movement +8, Knockback -2]) [1PP]

Immunity 13 (Fatigue Effects, Poison, Suffocation, all Environmental Conditions)[13pp]

Impervious Toughness 9 (Impervious Toughness) [9PP] (Thick Skin)

Super Strength 5 (Super Strength, Effective Strength 49 Heavy Load 11.2 Tons) [8PP]

DC Block

Abilities (54) + Combat (18) + Saving Throws (14) + Skills (6) + Feats (14) + Powers (52) - Drawbacks (0) = 158/162 Power Points

[Dr Archeville]

Quick skim over, and I see three things that need fixing: you don't need brackets on your skills, alphabetize your feats, and you need to list the actual ranks for your powers.

[Paragon]

made those changes.

[Dr Archeville]

You don't need any of those brackets on your skills. I removed those when I went in and did some other formatting clean up.

Are you familiar with the aliens already existing in the FC setting? What's the Protector's relationship with them?

More about these aliens in general would be useful, too.

His Personality & Motivation section need more fleshing out. Right now, he sounds like a lunkhead who gets enraged at criminals, and rushes in to beat them until they stop moving. (Which is not good!)

The name's also an issue: a flying super-strong, super-tough person calling himself 'Paragon' is sort like Tony Stark calling himself 'Battlesuit' or the Flash calling himself 'Speedster.'

The stats... need a lot of work. Notably, you've overspent by 6pp.

You could save some points by lowering 'base' Attack and adding some ranks in the Attack Focus (Melee) feat.

With a Defense of 2 and a Toughness of 10, he's PL 6 in terms of Defense. That's an incredibly bad idea; foes will Power Attack you, and you will go down.

Skills: since most skills DCs are multiples of 5, it's best to take enough ranks to get your skill modifiers up to some multiple of 5.

I also removed the Skills you'd listed in which he has no ranks; those don't need to be listed.

Do be aware that Immunity (Fatigue effect) does not protect you from the Fatigue of Extra Effort.

And if his Immuniy to Mental Effects is "he's super-stubborn," why does he not have any Will save? Immunity to Mental Effect won't help him against Interaction skills, which are resisted by Will, Sense Motive, or the same skill. The Fearless feat will help him some against Intimidate, but as he is now, he's about as easy to Bluff as a baby.

Also, two things to be aware of on Regeneration:

Regen for Ability Damage is nearly useless, since the duration of that is set by the user of the power

The "1/round" rate you have for all those conditions means one round of uninterrupted rest. I.e., one round not doing anything in combat.

[Gizmo]

Couple of things after a quick glance: just wearing a military uniform isn't really a costume, especially if he's getting cheatsy and using sunglasses instead of a real mask. Granted, Clark Kent-ing works in-setting, so those sunglasses could feasibly protect his secret identity, but he should look like a superhero. We try to stay away from the 'too cool/gritty/etc. for tights' vibe. By contrast, John Stweart's Indigo Lantern look would be fine, so you can still go for something with a military feel to it.

'Being stubborn' is not sufficient justification for Immunity to all Will-based effects. For context, Fortitude Immunity is reserved for robots and ghosts, things that are not alive in the traditional sense. By extension, Will Immunity would imply that he has no mind to target whatsoever. Given how expensive that power is anyway, your points would be much better spent giving him an appropriately high Will Save and then spending the remained elsewhere.

This is getting more nitpicky, but his current Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma make him a bit bland. Not bad, just totally average. I'd also expect a university student to have at least one decent Knowledge skill; +5 is typically someone with a little training or familiarity, while +10 is enough for a degree or professional use. On the whole, he just feels like a load of physical abilities with a few leftover points spent of the places that make him an actual person.

[Dr Archeville]

Also, you need to tell us when you make edits -- the board does not automatically notify us when edits to a post are made.

[Paragon]

Ok, I made those changes you suggested. I took out immunity to will and gave him a good will save instead. I used those points to upgrade his abilities and skills to make him more well rounded. I gave him a new description for a more heroic looking costume. I have triple checked the points. I am fairly sure they are right, but there may be a few formatting errors that I have not caught or that you may like displayed differently here.

If you have any other suggestions let me know.

[Paragon]

So how do you all think he looks. I Would like to get any issues with his resolved, and get him in play. Are there any issues anyone can see?

[Avenger Assembled]

APPROVED

[Paragon]

Well that's one approval. Anyone else want to take a loom and see if there are any problems or approve it? That would be swell.

[Supercape]

Looking goodish...

CON should be 28, I cant see where the 28/30 comes from?

I would draw your attention to Density 3 - as this is not continuous, should he be stunned, thats a DC 13 Concentration check to remain Dense (and if it drops, there is some loss of immovable, protection, etc). Its not serious, but just to note that. On that note, you need to note under Toughness save where the +10 Bonus comes from and that its impervious.

(Buying the COntinous extra would mean Density stays on even if you are KO'd, and you can turn it on and off. Buying it as permenant for no cost means it is on all the time, and cant be lost - but you cannot stunt off it, use extra effort on it, or turn it off which may be problematic).

Also, Density is not subtle, so people will know you are dense (unless you have subtle feat) - you bulk up, or turn to some obviously dense material, or something (whatever the descriptor is).

[Paragon]

Hey Supercape I took a look at the toughness, and saw that you are right. The 28/30 must have been from n earlier version that I forgot to remove. I ended up adding the permanent modifier to the density after looking at the different choices.

Thanks for the heads up on that.

[Paragon]

what kind of note would i need to put under toughness? Would I just write it next to toughness that it comes from density?

[Paragon]

So can anyone see any other areas where this sheet is lacking? I have to say you guys are good at finding any small flaw. That is what I call detail oriented. I have been looking at this sheet for weeks and I have missed all the things you have brought to my attention. As always thanks for looking.

[Avenger Assembled]

Looks like some math and notation errors have crept in, Paragon.

Use our site format for things like Density and Immovable, please, as well as noting the numbers put into his saves.

[Paragon]

Ok, So I fixed the formatting error in Density and brought it in line with the format you have. I found an error with the skills and fixed that so the math is right there. I fixed the formatting with the saves, so it states where the bonus comes from if it is not from directly buying it of a stat. I fixed the addition on the stats so it is correct.

Were there any other formatting errors? I have one question about Density. I have some skills like Immovable I put the bonuses from density into the powers. Should I list those separately? If so where should I list them?

[Supercape]

Fixed several minor formatting issues.

Grapple is +20/+26 (you have six ranks of super strength due to density)

Note that your immovable power is 1, and you have 2 ranks of actual immovable. This is lost if you move more than your normal one "move action" in a round (unlikely but there you go).

Anyway, corrected all of that, so...

:approved: