Acosm (PL 10) - shatterspike1

[shatterspike1]

Player Name: shatterspike1

Character Name: Acosm

Power Level: 10 150/153 PP

Trade-Offs: -5 Defense/+5 Toughness, 0 Damage/0 Attack

Unspent Power Points: 3

Progress To Bronze Status: 3/30

In Brief: Victim of cosmic accident that leaves him with strange energy form. He transforms easily (even accidentally) into it, the hard part is turning back.

Alternate Identity: David Kosminen

Identity: Public

Birthplace: Boulder, Colorado

Occupation: Vagrant

Affiliations: None yet

Family: Michelle Kosminen (Mother)

Description:

Age: 19 (DoB: 1994)

Apparent Age: 19

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Height: 5' 5"

Weight: 100 lbs

Eyes: Green

Hair: Brown

Tiny even by the standards of your usual 98 pound weakling, David stands almost literally beneath the attention of many of the people he encounters. He has long and shaggy hair due to not having seen a barber for at least a year, and moves to brush it out of his face constantly. Despite looking (and smelling) like he's been on the road for quite awhile, he tends to wear a grin and lean in when talking to nearly anyone. Of course, this all changes when he transforms.

Power Descriptions:

In his alternate form, he looks like a window into a nebula, the window moving as he moves. Surrounded constantly by a strangely fluctuating aura in his transformed state, he can also project blasts of strange cosmic energy. If the blasts merely impact with force, they look as he does, an unmoving plaid sort of effect. If the blasts disintegrate matter, however, they glow a deep red. The aura also appears to flare out and intensify, glowing that same deep red.

History:

David was, for most of his life, unexceptional. He had two loving parents, only losing his father to cancer at 15. He was a slightly above average student, getting mostly B's in school. He shot up to 5' 5" when he was 12 and never grew an inch after that, but that never bothered him. He was on his last semester of High School when everything changed.

 

He had just walked up to the counter of a convenience store when a man with a gun walked in. David saw the gun, and experienced a fear so great his senses faded out. He experienced what he would later call an "emotional black hole". The next thing he remembered, the man was gone and there was massive hole in the side of the store. This was the first time his powers manifested, transforming him from a short, rail thin teenager into an enormously powerful energy being. He went through a few moments of sheer panic at the fact that he had apparently killed someone before finding the man lying outside, unconscious. It was a relief right up until the police showed up. David flew off and hid in the mountains for a few hours until the energy bled off of him and he returned to normal.

 

David thought that he could return to his life and forget the incident, but a couple days later he transformed again, this time just over dwelling on bad thoughts. This time, he did it in the middle of class. Fortunately, there were no fatalities (a disintegrated desk though), but David realized he no longer had any chance of living a normal life again. He fled the scene. It didn't take long for his identity to become public, but since then he's wandering around the United States. He's been mistaken as a supervillain at least three times since, and also helped stop a few in-progress crimes. He's taken up the name "Acosm", a portmanteau of "a cosmic accident." It shows how he feels about his situation (and also how terrible he is at names).

 

He's recently come to Freedom City in the hopes of finding someone who understands his condition, or at the very least, something helpful to do.

Personality & Motivation:

For someone who's been a vagrant for the past one-and-a-half years, David seems remarkably well adjusted. He smiles often and is very people focused. He's always happy to talk with anyone who's willing to pay attention with him. Partly, this is because he constantly represses negative emotions due to the danger of accidental transformation, but it's also partially due to having motivation to find new ways to think about his situation. He tries not to let himself sink into bad thoughts, and is perfectly happy to listen to other people's issues to gain perspective for himself and offer advice. Not that he's necessarily very good at giving advice.

 

Part of his reasoning for trying to be a superhero stems from this. "I can't go back to normal, so I might as well help people" is what he might say if asked why he does what he does. In addition to that, being a superhero is interesting and exciting for him when he isn't overcome with the feeling of preternatural calm his energy form seems to bring on.

Powers & Tactics:

Whenever he projects any of his active powers (any attacks or movement effects), he is forced to transform into his energy form. That's not all, though; whenever he experiences any emotion more negative than "the waiter got my order wrong", he is forced to transform. What's more, once transformed, he has to spend several hours bleeding out the energy to return to human. Those are the downsides of his powers.

 

When moving, he simply thinks to move in a direction, any direction, and then does so. This means he can go through the earth, sky, or water with equal ease. It also means that he can go anywhere he can think of. When not moving, he just hangs stationary wherever he happens to be.

 

Even when not in his energy form, he still doesn't need to eat, drink or breathe, and he's far more resistant to physical injury than a baseline human. He also is much, much harder to hurt with things like fire, electrocution, et cetra.

 

In terms of tactics, he's fairly straightforward. Fly out of range of ground based fighters and start blasting away with energy blasts. He'll switch to disintegrate to deal with objects, and is very hesitant to use it against living beings. If fighting in an enclosed space with allies, he'll flare out his cosmic aura as a deterrent to approach and use it to corral enemies towards his more physical allies.

Complications:

Wealth: Although not needing to eat is very helpful for someone who doesn't have a home to live in, David still doesn't have access to any of the resources someone with any income does. David has the impoverished condition and has little more than the clothes on his back.

Reputation: Despite his best efforts, uncontrolled transformation combined with a disintegrating aura tends to get David a reputation as massively destructive at best, or at worst, mistaken for a supervillan.

Accident: His reputation as a destructive individual is at least partially deserved; his blasts (and his aura) tend to cause significant collateral damage.

Public Identity: David Kosminen never really got a chance for a secret identity, so sometimes people from his hometown come looking for him. Since he's completely public, this also means villains can target his old friends or his mom.

Abilities: -2 + 0 + 6 + 1 + 8 + 0 = 13PP

Strength: 8 (-1)

Dexterity: 10 (0)

Constitution: 16 (+3)

Intelligence: 11 (+0)

Wisdom: 18 (+4)

Charisma: 10 (+0)

Combat: 8 + 4 = 12PP

Initiative: 0

Attack: +4 Melee, +10 Ranged

Grapple: +3

Defense: +5 (+2 Base, +3 Dodge Focus), +1 Flat-Footed

Knockback: -7

Saving Throws: 0 + 2 + 6 = 8PP

Toughness: +15 (+3 Con, +12 Protection)

Fortitude: +3 (+3 Con, +0)

Reflex: +2 (0 Dex, +2)

Will: +10 (+4 Wis, +6)

 

Skills: 12R = 3PP

Diplomacy 4 (+4)

Gather Information 1 (+1)

Notice 2 (+6)

Search 1 (+1)

Sense Motive 2 (+6)

Stealth 1 (+1)

Survival 1 (+5)

Feats: 9PP

Attack Focus (Ranged) 6

Dodge Focus 3

Powers: 12 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 25 + 4 + 5 + 29 = 105PP

All Powers have Cosmic Descriptor

 

Protection 12 [12 PP]

 

Immunity 10 (Life Support, Starvation and Thirst)[10 PP]

 

Immunity 20 (All Lethal Energy Damage; Flaws: Limited to converting Lethal to Nonlethal) [10 PP]

 

Insubstantial 3 (Extras: Continuous Duration (+1) ; Drawbacks: Involuntary Transformation Very Common and Major, One-Way Transformation Very Common and Minor) [10 PP]

Movement (24PP array; Feats: Alternate Power 1) [25 PP]

Base Power: Flight 8 (2,500 MPH; Extras: Continuous Duration (+1)) {24/24}

Alternate Power: Teleport 6 (600 feet Move, 20 miles Full Round; Extras: Accurate (+1); Feats: Change Direction, Change Velocity, Easy) + Flight 1 (10 MPH; Extras: Continuous Duration (+1)) {21+3= 24/24}

Disintegration Aura

Damage 1 (Extras: Sustained Duration (+2), Aura (+1), Linked to Drain) [4 PP]

Drain 1 (Toughness, Extras: Sustained Duration (+2), Aura (+1), Affects Objects (+1), Linked to Damage) [5 PP]

Cosmic Energy Control (27PP array; Feats: Alternate Power 2) [29 PP]

Base Power: Disintegration 5 (Feats: Affects Insubstantial 2) {27/27}

Alternate Power: Blast 10 (Feats: Affects Insubstantial 2, Homing 1, Split Attack 1, Improved Range 1, Precise, Knockback 1) {27/27}

Alternate Power: Move Object 12 (Feats: Precise, Improved Range 2) {27/27}

DC Block

ATTACK                          RANGE                            SAVE                           EFFECT
Disintegrate Aura +4            Touch          DC16 Toughness (Staged)/DC11 Fortitude    Damage (Energy)/Drain Toughness
Disintegrate Attack +10         Rank 5 Ranged  DC20 Toughness (Staged)/DC15 Fortitude    Damage (Energy)/Drain Toughness
Blast +10                       Rank 10 Ranged DC25 Toughness (Staged)                   Damage (Energy)

 

 

Totals: Abilities (13) + Combat (12) + Saving Throws (8) + Skills (3) + Feats (9) + Powers (105) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/153 Power Points

Edited September 19, 2014 by Fox
+1pp for August 2014

[Supercape]

Welcome to the site. I would advise this goes to Character Building - where most of us toss around ideas before it is formally submitted. I haven't moved it as yet, but it would probably be a good idea. 

 

Looking at the crunch here there are some problems (unsurprisingly, there always are!), but the first thing to mention: given your description, it looks like his powers should be built as an alternative form with the one-way transformation disability. As it is, I suppose he can use his non insubstantial blast fly powers even in normal kid mode?

 

As for the powers - I am not sure why he needs diosntegration and flight outside of the array? Flight I can get due to teleportation (although you may wish a dynamic array instead). Swimming isn't really needed as we use UP version of flight that works underwater. 1 Rank of Disintegration is a bit odd outside of the array. 

 

Now for the bad news - Disintegration!

 

As it is Boost is not allowed in arrays as per house rules - for fairly obvious reasons: You boost up, get the nice new power, then flip over to another power whilst still having all the lovely boost effects. 

 

 

Secondly, you have costed Disintegration wrong for the aura and indeed the blast. As per UP, it costs 5 PP/Rank. Essentially it is built as a ranged damage (2 PP/Rank) linked with a ranged drain toughness with effect objects extra (3 PP/Rank). Which also means that any extra's you put on it need to be costed for both powers. Disintegrate 6 thus costs 30 PP. 

 

For the Aura - its a corrosion aura. Here it gets extremely costly (and with good reason as it is incredibly powerful). If you are talking a sustained aura it would be 9 PP/Rank. Damage linked with Sustained [+2] and Aura [+1] for 4PP/Rank, plus Drain linked with affects objects [+1], Sustained [+2], and Aura [+1] fior 5PP/Rank. If you want to make it a continuous duration it goes up to 11 PP/Rank. 

[shatterspike1]

I edited the character to correct those issues; I also added in a new AE that I hope won't cause any problems.

[Avenger Assembled]

You gotta get some skills onto this sheet, man.

 

More generally, I have no real objection to the backstory, but you can trust he probably will have a chance to not be a hobo pretty fast. 

[shatterspike1]

I shaved some points off his movement array to put into skills; figured this is everything he's learned since high school.

[Avenger Assembled]

All right, the issue I had was addressed - SC?

[Supercape]

OK:

 

All looks good except powers:

 

Alternate Form, as a container, is either permanent or sustained. This is not particularly well notated on the sheet and doesn't add up. I suggest looking at some other PCs with Alternate Form to get an idea. The container itself may have permanent powers in it, which indicates that those powers cannot be turned on or off (or stunted) - or rather, they can only be turned off when the entire alternate form goes off. 

 

So, I think your alternate form as written adds up to 84 PP. This would be a container Alternate form 16.8 (84PP) costing 84 PP. However, adding continuous to this is an extra, +1 PP per rank of Alternate Form (rounded up) for an additional 17 PP. 

 

Of course you could have alternate form as a sustained power. 

 

(Yes, I know this makes alternate form expensive...)

 

The powers within the alternate form look ok, although you do need to tidy up the individual powers, again take a look at a few sheets for ideas. Some of the costs are wrong too (Flight 1 Continuous would cost 3 PP for instance)

 

DC Block - Fort Save for Disintergrate will be 11 for aura, and 16 for the attack. I am not sure what the "+4" and "+10" figures are doing there!

 

Finally, The Drawbacks - Involuntary transformation I guess means will come up every adventure (on average) and a DC 10 roll to resist the transformation? (From UP), and one way transformation means a couple of hours to get back to normal? That sounds like what you have written anyway both in terms of fluff and points. 

[shatterspike1]

Errr... derp.  Alternate Form was listed as Continuous Duration instead of Permanent due to oversight.  Either way, the Powers inside it with any duration might as well be permanent; the flight is continuous only because permanent doesn't make sense as a flaw there.  The Alternate form, before the drawback is applied, adds to 81 by my calculations; I'm confused as to where the extra 3 points are coming from.  Flight 1 Continuous IS costed at three points, it's just written in a weird style (it's attached to the teleport, making it so that he doesn't drop out of the sky the moment he teleports somewhere).  The Fort saves on disintegrate were me applying the toughness save format to them; I'll correct that.  The +4 and +10 are attack bonuses (I saw the style on another accepted sheet, I was under the impression that was how it was written).  The drawbacks could be written a bit clearer, but yes, that's right.  I thought it was DC 15, though.

[Supercape]

Honestly, I am not sure about a permanent alternate form and those drawbacks. On the face of it, permanent alt form means you are stuck in that form, period and this will not fly, but I am referring to the refcave for opinions on this. Sorry for delay. 

[shatterspike1]

Hrm... after looking through the rules on Containers in UP, it looks like your assessment of permanent is correct.  Seems like if I want these powers, it would be significantly cheaper to not have an AF container at all, and instead just apply everything individually (and change the aura to sustained); this is how it was originally statted out.  It'll cost me a whole three extra points to do this (changing Insubstantial from permanent to continuous), so I'll probably shave some off of the blast AE and be done with it.  I'm surprised that continuous double dips on you (once for the AF and once for the powers inside).

____

 

So I went ahead and implemented those changes, hopefully this version of the sheet (which resembles the first one I submitted) is rules legal.

Edited May 26, 2014 by shatterspike1

[Supercape]

Thanks for that. 

 

A few niggles:

 

Attack Focus I think is ranged could you notate it so: Attack Focus (Ranged) 6

 

You could, if you wish amalgamate Immunity as Immunity 10 (Starvataion and Thirst, Life Support). No need to, but it might keep it cleaner. 

 

Teleport I make 21 PP - still under budget, but there you go. You could add another rank to that. 

 

Flight 1 needs reformatting (shifted left!)

 

Note that Move Object can be bought "above caps", i.e. above rank 10, but onlly for the purposes of lifting. For combat, it will be rank 10 (as per house rules). 

[Supercape]

APPROVED

[Fox]

A rare fluff question from the Fox, but stranger things have been known to happen:

Is there an explanation for the source of his powers? "Emotional black hole" is a bit vague; where do his powers actually come from?

[shatterspike1]

His powers, as much of an excuse as this is, come from a "Cosmic Accident".  Think of it as some sort of expression of the fabric of space-time.

[Fox]

Alright. Crunch time, then.

Combat

With a melee attack bonus of +4 and a str penalty of -1, your grapple modifier is +3, not -1.

Saves

Those are some really, really low fort and reflex bonuses. I'm willing to approve it even still, but keep in mind that anyone wielding a power with a fort or reflex save is gonna rock Acosm here.

Powers

Flight 1 is incorrectly noted as costing 24pp; it also, unfortunately, puts you 3pp over-budget as Flight 1 is not accounted for in your pp totals.

[shatterspike1]

For the combat total on grapple, I'll fix that issue.  The saves I'm perfectly fine with, mechanical issues aside.  For the Flight 1 power; it's on the same power as the teleport.  It's part of the array and has the curly brace point cost marking it as such.

[Fox]

Ah, just a formatting issue, then. I've tweaked that so the powers appear to be part of the same array slot, rather than flight being separate by virtue of indentation.

 

APPROVED