Thoughtspeed (PL 10/12) - KnightDisciple

[KnightDisciple]

Thoughtspeed

Power Level: 10 (Shifted) [12] 194/198 PP
Trade-Offs: +3 Attack / -3 Damage, +3 Defense / -3 Toughness
Unspent Power Points: 4

In Brief: Son of a time controller and a psychic, Thoughtspeed uses his strength of will to harness kinetic energy to move faster and fight harder, all for the cause of good (and impressing the ladies)!

Alternate Identity: William Cline
Identity: Secret(ish)
Birthplace: USA
Occupation: Student, Superhero
Affiliations: Claremont 
Family: Richard Cline "Fast-Forward" (Father); Paige Cline "Hologram" (Mother); Anne Cline "Clock Queen" (Paternal Grandmother); Holly Cline (Younger Sister); Bryant Cline (Paternal Grandfather, de-aged)

Description:
Age: 19 (DoB: October 1997)
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasion/Jewish mix
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 170 lbs
Eyes: Dark Brown (Normal), Dark Green (Powers Active)
Hair: Black

William's built lean; between his super-metabolism and his natural inclinations to work on endurance and flexibility, he doesn't cut a large figure. That said, he's clearly in excellent condition and well-toned, showing a natural, organic athleticism. His dark hair is kept fairly short, but just long enough it can get a bit tousled in the wind when he runs (just as planned!). His skin has a healthy tan, born from a lot of outdoor runs. His eyes often dance with barely restrained mischief, when they aren't glowing green with the use of his powers. William tends to dress fashionably but comfortably, in clothes that one could comfortably run in.

Thoughtspeed's outfit is made up of morphic molecules engineered to resist high-speed frictions, though not enough to help in an actual fight. Still, it comes out as a decently thick suit of flexible, breathable material that is nonetheless decently more substantial than, say, spandex. The primary color of the suit is a slightly glossy black. Starting at the shoulders (front and back) and running down the right and left sides of his suit are lines of dark green (about 2 inches wide) that trace their way down his legs (the lines thin to about 1 inch past his waist) all the way to his ankles, where it makes a circle around the ankle, thus joining the front and rear lines. Another set of similar lines go down the middle of the outside arm section, ending in circles at his wrists; his elbows and knees have slightly thicker circles, while a large loop circles his waist like a belt. When he's using his powers more actively (OOC: Faster than Speed 2 or Quickness 1, using any of the Super-Movement powers, or using his Kinetic Blades Array), bleed-off psycho-kinetic energy goes into the costume, causing the lines to glow a somewhat brighter green. His feet are clad in hybrid shoes, with a tread somewhere between "hiking boots" and "track shoes", giving him flexibility, traction, and comfort. Finally, a thin "metallic" helmet unfolds over his head when the costume is active (though he can will it to retract independently); this helmet encapsulates his head, including a one-way visor that obscures his face but lets him see clearly. The helmet has several subtle air vents to allow comfortable breathing and preventing heat buildup, and has thin lines curving around the sides to connect to the lines on his suit's shoulders (the helmet's lines also glow when his powers ramp up). A simple domino mask is underneath the helmet, as a nod to his secret identity without being too complicated.

Power Descriptions:
While Fast-Forward's powers allow him to harness chronal energy to warp space-time (mainly time), and his mother can project powerful illusions, Thoughtspeed's powers are more internally focused. His body is able to generate and harness notably more kinetic energy than usual, all controlled by his formidable will (or sheer teenage stubbornness, according to his mother).
Thus, he can charge his body with kinetic energy to move many times the speed of sound, even across water or up buildings. However, his precision control is much lower, meaning he cannot accomplish fine tasks with the same level of speed (though he can still accomplish things faster than humanly possible).
This same usage of kinetic energy means that, within a certain distance, he has an innate spatial sense that allows him to navigate in complete darkness, using his mind to interpret the "bounce-back" his whole body is picking up. That this makes him difficult to catch unawares is an added benefit.
Finally, he can mold the kinetic energy he generates into semi-tangible constructs, which he shapes into various hand-held melee weapons. He can alter the properties of the blades somewhat, though he cannot do everything at once with them, forcing him to decide on his mode of attack. If he takes a moment to concentrate, he can find the best way to move about an area and attack many people at once within it with his kinetic energy blades, which can prove useful for laying low a group of henchmen.
William's inheritance from his mother is still developing; while he can set up a team-wide telepathic link, the range is poor enough he runs the risk of casually zipping out of range in the blink of an eye, leaving everyone suddenly isolated again.
Thoughtspeed is also able to use his mental and kinetic powers to warp and blur the light around his body, as well as generating some basic, low-level holographs, that he becomes invisible to the naked or assisted eye. Of course, he still needs to rely on his own caution and skill to move undetected to the ear or other, more exotic senses. The same field can be turned outward, generating a massive burst of blinding green light; he has finally mastered only blinding those he chooses to with this burst of power, though it takes him several seconds to build up to it nonetheless.

History:
William didn't come into the world until his parents had left behind villainy for several years. They were older and at least somewhat wiser. And those early years had been great; just him, Mom, and Dad, nothing but good times. Several early years were spent living in an RV, and how cool is that? Totally cool. He saw a lot of pretty neat in those traveling years. 
They came back to Freedom City for a bit, he learned he was getting a new baby sister, and his Mom got really weird for a while. She was a LOT snappier than usual with him, and he just couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong. But then Holly was born, and they were moving again!
California was kind of nicer than Freedom City. It wasn't really any shinier, but it was warm a lot more, which meant William got to wear shorts a lot! He liked shorts. And things were pretty awesome for years! His mom and dad ended up TV stars, he got to be on television (even if he had to wear a mask, but hey, he got to help build it!), and his Grandma Anne was fun to visit, even if she tended to talk about "back in my day". A lot. Even more than his dad! 
He started getting superpowers, and that was totally awesome! His dad helped him figure most of it out, with his mom giving him pointers. Eventually he figured out he could make swords. With his mind! That's when Grandma Anne start giving him lessons when he visited! Though she didn't do much to encourage his creativity, always trying to make him stick to one long blade and one short. He only just managed to avoid "having" to make them look like clock hands; that would have been so last century, and thus lame. 
And then Holly mind-controlled an entire school, and in less than a week California was left behind and Will found himself in Freedom City again. But now he had to go to a fancy-dancy little private school for heroes. It's not that being a hero was bad, but now he felt obligated to end up being one, instead of having the option to, he didn't know, maybe run his own TV show or something! And to make matters worse, he'd left all his friends and lots of cute girls behind in California, and now his sister was getting all of the attention instead of only some of it, and both the women in the house were totally psychic and it sucked! Psychic women were the worst when you were a teenage boy.
But hey, the classes were kind of neat, gym was mostly a breeze, and the girls here were kind of pretty. Even if some of them could turn you into a pretzel with one hand. 

Will ended up going to UCLA for several months, competing in some track runs out in California, working through college-credit courses (super-speed studying has its perks), and striking up a relationship with a college freshman girl who just happened to be a cheerleader for UCLA. It was fun and a bit wild. Then he finished his college credit classes and decided to come back to Freedom City and Claremont Academy to finish off his senior year of high school. The fact that he and his girlfriend were taking a break that was in no way related to her actually being a ninja that was attacked by a rival, evil clan of ninjas when they were on a date certainly had very little to do with that decision. Practically nothing, in fact. 

Having graduated Claremont, Will has continued to take college courses, though he has yet to pick a major (which frustrates his parents, naturally). He hasn't really found a new romantic interest, instead actually focusing on school, family, or heroics. Or just running for fun, which he still likes. 
 
Personality & Motivation:

Will has always been an...energetic...young man. While his mother's worked hard to instill a sense of discipline into him, he's inherited a full dose of the mischief of his parents, albeit in a somewhat more law-abiding way. His parents both made sure he wasn't one for petty crime, not that he felt he needed it. He has an intellectual admiration for some of the more "refined" and "principled" super-villains (mostly of yester-year like his parents), but his real role models (besides his father and mother) are still heroes. Just the ones with senses of humor and/or some sort of super-speed.
William is by nature impatient, but while he can sometimes be an excitable handful in class, his mother has instilled enough of a work-ethic in him that he's willing to work on his studies; he just often has trouble sitting through classes, despite being able to somewhat "ramp down" his speed (body and mind) to something closer to normal for humans. While he doesn't automatically distrust and disrespect his teachers (and other authority figures), Will will sometimes push boundaries as much as he can, though it's more due to being used to his mother's firm rules for what he can and can't get away with.
When meeting people (especially peers) for the first time, Will is friendly and outgoing, enthusiastically so. Despite this, he actually has few close friends, as he finds himself only comfortable with people he trusts; trust is one of those things he gives sparingly. When he does make a friend, he's fiercely loyal and even protective of them. He's been known to (at least try to) play pranks on those who upset or hurt his friends.
William is a bit of a flirt, though he's well-mannered enough to not continue if the girl is already taken, or if she just asks him to stop. He generally doesn't "tease" his friends, as he's conscious of how some might not take to it as naturally and humorously as others. He tries to present himself as something of a "rakish ladies man" (a trait he insists he inherited from his father).
His family is important to him, but he admits he's often "so frustrated" by them; his father can be too goofy even forWill's sense of humor, his mother is often "too strict", and his sister is precocious enough to inspire frustration at nearly every turn. Anyone else who is negative about them finds themselves in a heap of trouble, though.
Thoughtspeed is always eager to taunt opponents, or at least appear to not take them seriously when at all possible. While to some allies he seems unfocused and undisciplined, he's actually always focused on helping out his team; he simply can't keep his somewhat rambunctious nature from leaking through.

Powers & Tactics:
If fighting alone, Thoughtspeed will typically keep his visual stealth up as long as feasible while closing in on an enemy, then perform several quick strikes. After that, his preferred method is to use the full measure of his speed to keep out of an enemy's range while running by at high speed and hitting them; few enemies can reliably hit someone who's a mile or more away.
However, if he's working in a group, Thoughtspeed's tactics shift rather noticeably. If he's the only telepath around, he will work to stay within about 100ft of everyone in the group, so that no one drops off the link he has with them. This means he has to rely on tactics and a bit of stealth to keep from being shot at in the first place, or just rely on his incredible reflexes to not get hit.
He only uses his Visual Overload if he feels there's no other choice, as it risks disabling teammates as well.
He usually opens a fight with his Twin Blades, only using the Duelist Blade if he finds a particularly tough opponent. He will sub in forming the Halberd if there's a group, or he's fighting a particularly tough and wily opponent.
 

---

Complications:
Secret Identity: William Cline intends to keep his hero life separate from his "normal" life, outside of the unusual "blending" that happens at Claremont. Thus, a GM may award Thoughtspeed a Hero Point when maintaining his dual identity is put at undue risk by the current situation.
Shady Family Background: While his father's mother is (mostly) peacefully retired, and his parents are reformed, William's family background is extremely checkered. Anyone researching his family very much may make unwanted connections, and some parts of his extended family might object to his heroic efforts. A GM may feel free to award him a Hero Point if he faces hardships due to his family connections to villains past and present.
Mind Over Matter: Typically Thoughtspeed's powers are a unified whole that gives him internally-focused kinetic energy control. However, a precisely-targeted power nullification that was also powerful enough might cause his psionic powers to shut down, but not his kinetic powers. This would leave him bereft of much of his ability, as well as rendering him a potential danger to others, thanks to out-of-control kinetic energy buildup he'd have to either drain off by large amounts of movement, or see erupt out in random damage. A GM might award a Hero Point if some Nullification were to take out his Psionic descriptors, but leave him enough power beyond his Speed and Quickness to cause some sort of Aura damage, or something similar, to cause risk to civilians and fellow heroes.
Big Eater: Thoughtspeed needs a lot of fuel to keep his super-metabolism going, to the point of typically carrying a couple of high-energy bars with him on a patrol or the like, just to keep the edge off of his hunger. A GM might award a Hero Point if, due to limited food supplies, Thoughtspeed's hunger reaches the point where his powers are reduced in effectiveness.
Born to Be Wild: William Cline is his father's son. He is also a teenager. This means he's got a pretty solid rebellious streak, and just enough disregard for authority to get him into trouble. A good bit of trouble, even.
Big Shadows: Fast-Forward and Hologram were larger-than-life villains and are larger-than-life heroes/television stars. Combined with their somewhat eccentric personalities, this means there's a lot of pressure (more imagined than real) on William to live up to that larger-than-life life. Combined with the rather esoteric upbringing he had, and the rather sudden move to Freedom City, it's left the eldest child of the family feeling more than a bit disaffected and frustrated with his parents, who are simultaneously "pretty cool" and "totally lame", as only a teenager can think of his parents.
Little Shadow: Holly is a precocious super-psychic little sister. She totally harshs his vibe sometimes. Or gets in trouble and he has to help bail her out.


ABILIITES: 4 + 14 + 14 + 2 + 4 + 4 = 42PP
Strength: 14 (+2)
Dexterity: 24 (+7)
Constitution: 24 (+7)
Intelligence: 12 (+1)
Wisdom: 14 (+2)
Charisma: 14 (+2)


COMBAT: 10 + 10 = 20PP
Initiative: +15
Attack: +13 Kinetic Blades, +7 Melee, +5 Ranged
Grapple: +9
Defense: +13 (+5 Base, +8 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed
Knockback: -2


SAVING THROWS: 0 + 2 + 6 = 8PP
Toughness: +7 (+7 Con)
Fortitude: +7 (+7 Con)
Reflex: +9 (+7 Dex, +2)
Will: +8 (+2 Wis, +6)


SKILLS: 76R = 19PP
Acrobatics 10 (+17)
Disable Device 8 (+9)
Escape Artist 8 (+15)
Knowledge: Pop Culture 2 (+3)
Language 2 (English [Native], German, Hebrew)
Notice 10 (+12)
Search 8 (+9)
Sense Motive 10 (+12)
Sleight of Hand 8 (+15)
Stealth 10 (+17)


FEATS: 23PP
Accurate Attack
Acrobatic Bluff
All-Out Attack
Attack Focus: Melee 2
Attack Specialization: Kinetic Blades 3
Challenge (Fast Task) 1 (Acrobatic Feint)
Defensive Attack
Dodge Focus 8
Improved Initiative 2
Move-By Action
Power Attack
Takedown Attack 1 (2 with Kinetic Blades 'Polearm')


POWERS: 6 (1+5) + 31 (14+14+3) + 29 (17+12) + 16 = 82PP

Psycho-Kinetic Awareness 1.2 (6PP Container [Passive, Permanent]) [6pp] (Mutant, Kinetic Energy, Psionic)

Enhanced Feat 1 (Uncanny Dodge: Mental) [1PP]
Super-Senses 6 (Accurate, Acute, Radius, Ranged, Mental Sense) [5pp]

Kinetic Speed 6.2 (31PP Container [Passive, Permanent]) [31PP] (Mutant, Kinetic Energy)

Quickness 14 (x50,000) [14PP]
Speed 14 (250,000 MPH/2,500,000ft per Move Action) [14PP]
Super-Movement 3 (Water-Walking, Wall-Crawling 2, Flaw: Only While Moving) [3PP]

Mental Powers 5.8 (29PP Container) [29PP] (Mutant, Psionic)

Communication 5 (Mental, 5 miles, Extras: Affects Others, Area; Power Feats: Selective, Subtle) [17PP] ("Telepathic Linkup")

Psionic Light 5.5 (11PP Array Feats: Alternate Power 1) [12PP]

-Base Power: Dazzle 10 (Visual, Extras: Area [General, Burst, 50ft radius], Flaws: Action [Full], Range [Touch]) [10PP] ("Visual Overload")

-Alternate Power: Concealment 4 (All Visual) [8pp] ("Personal Holographic Shroud")

Kinetic Blades 7 (14PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 2) [16PP] (Mutant, Kinetic Energy)

-Base Power: Strike 5 (Extras: Autofire (Applies to Strength Bonus), Power Feats: Mighty [+2 Damage], Variable Descriptor 1 [Slashing, Piercing, or Bludgeoning]) [14PP] ("Twin Blades")
-Alternate Power: Strike 5 (Extras: Penetrating 6, Power Feats: Improved Critical 2 [18-20], Mighty [+2 Damage]) [14PP] ("Duelist Blade"; Piercing)
-Alternate Power: Strike 5 (Power Feats: Extended Reach 2 [15ft reach], Mighty [+2 Damage], Variable Descriptor 1 [Slashing, Piercing, or Bludgeoning]) [9PP] + Enhanced Feats 3 (Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Takedown Attack 1) [3PP] ("Polearm")

 

Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP
 

DC Block

ATTACK        RANGE      SAVE                                                        EFFECT 
Unarmed      Touch          DC17 Toughness (Staged)                     Damage (Physical) 
Strike            Touch          DC22 Toughness (+ Autofire, Staged)   Damage (Physical) 
Dazzle           Area            DC20 Reflex                                          1/2 Effect                       
                                         DC20 Reflex                                           Blinded 
                                         DC20 Fortitude                                       Recover

 

 

TOTALS

Abilities (42) + Combat (20) + Saving Throws (8) + Skills (19) + Feats (23) + Powers (82) - Drawbacks (0) = 194/198 Power Points

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by Thevshi
+1pp for March 2022

[Avenger Assembled]

APPROVED

[Supercape]

Chipping in: I see challenge for fast acrobatic feint, but not the base acrobatic feint feat?

[KnightDisciple]

Chipping in: I see challenge for fast acrobatic feint, but not the base acrobatic feint feat?

Good catch, SC. I've taken 4 skill ranks from K: Pop Culture and used that PP to buy Acrobatic Bluff. Not sure how I missed that I'd forgotten that...

[Supercape]

This all looks good bar two very small things. 

 

1. Psycho-kinetic mental sense all adds up, but you should probably notate what sense it is - which in this case is, I presume some kind of mental blindsight. As it is, it doesn't actually define what sense you get! (I'd suggest saying the base sense is "mental blindsight" or something)

 

2. My one mechanical concern is sticking effortless on Mind Reading 1. The reason for this is as follows: Normally Mind Reading is not a combat thing, but an investigative thing (normally, not always). With Effortless, it means that even with Rank 1 you can just keep on trying until you succeed. It is a little bit of an edgy issue, as effectively you are massively cutting down the cost and get a garuanteed eventual "win" even with 1 rank of the power. 

 

So, this is technically legal of course, but its one of those rule loopholes. What effect where you going for here? if it is just to be in mental communication with people, you have that already as communication is, as per house rules, two way by default (and you could pump those 2 PP to improve communication power). My feeling is that it would be best to have mind reading as an alte power, built at higher rank without effortless to represent Thoughtspeed truly "Penetrating" the mind (with or without the surface thoughts only thing). 

 

As I say, it really depends on what you are going for here, but I hope you understand the concern about 1 rank of mind reading with effortless, from a mechanical point of view. 

[April]

Cape, it's a holdover from when Communication didn't default to two-way. It was sufficiently low rank, and effortless, so that PCs could voluntarily fail the save so replies could be read. In addition it was Effortless because otherwise the mind reading aspect of the telepathy construct could only be done once a scene without extra effort.

[KnightDisciple]

Regarding the 2 points.

 

1.) I hadn't thought I had to get more specific than "Mental" with the sense type. The idea is, essentially, a "mental radar" or "mental blindsense". Per his power descriptions: 

 

 

This same usage of kinetic energy means that, within a certain distance, he has an innate spatial sense that allows him to navigate in complete darkness, using his mind to interpret the "bounce-back" his whole body is picking up.

 

So I'm not sure what specifics I'd need on the naming of that sense.

 

2.) Sorus is exactly right; pretty much this whole build, barring a couple tweaks in the last couple of days, is from before the explicit Houserules on how Communication works. So the Mind-Reading was so that he can "receive" just like he can "send".

 

I'll touch up the mental comms power setup here in the next day or so. As for the mental sense, I'll clarify it in whatever way is needed. 

[Supercape]

I suspected as much Thunder! I am sure this was going to be used sensibly, but there is a cleaner way to do it which both actually makes it more effective and closes down the loophole! If you we're going after a pure utility communication power, you may as well drop the mind reading completely as its pretty superfluous, and plump the PP into more range or an extra rank of subtle.

On a technical note, in response to Sorus, I refer to UP. It pears my memory did not fail me... You do not need extra effort to mind read the same person in the same scene. You only need extra effort to do so if you fail the opposed roll. If mind reading is used as a voluntary communication power, there is no need for effortless (as presumably every person you are contacting will choose to fail that roll deliberately!) hope that makes sense.in other words, no need for effortless unless someone is actively resisting.

On point 1, I don't think you need any specifics! Anything to indicate broadly what sense you are buying would do. Pretty much up to you I guess.

e.g. Supersenses 6 (mental kinetic energy sense, accurate, acute, ranged, radius) [6PP]

Although you could replace kinetic energy sense with pretty much whatever you want to call it! Obviously the fine detail comes from power description as you say.

[Supercape]

After discussion with KD and a neato communication rejig (thanks KD!)

 

APPROVED!

 

Enjoy!

[Fox]

Unarchiving at player request.