Mechanized (PL10) - Souffle_Girl

[souffle_girl]

Player Name: Souffle_Girl
Character Name: Emily Stenford
Codename: Mechanized
Power Level: 10 (151/158)
Trade-Offs: +1 Damage / -1 Attack (Melee); +4 Toughness / -4 Defense
Unspent Power Points: 7
Progress To Bronze Status: 8/30

In Brief: Mutant, transgender daughter of a wealthy family trying to prove her worth by fighting crime with her customized battlesuit.

Place of residence: While Emily has a home in downtown Freedom, she often spends the night at her base of operations.
Base of Operations: Emily's base of operations is Stenford Arms main production facility, in the industrial district.
Identity: Public
Birthplace: Freedom City
Occupation: Full time superheroine
Affiliations: Stenford Arms, Freedom City Police Department

Family:

- Emily's dad, Edgar Charles Stenford, 55, is a very dedicated man and father. He also loves to personally work on machines. He loves his daughters deeply and would go to great lengths for them. Hwe never fully accepted Emily, not just because of her sexuality but also because he wished she would follow him into family business. Failing that he decided, as a father, to give her the best training and equipment he could muster to avoid her getting killed and as a businessman, he saw a chance to field-test his best tech for free and to advertise his company.

- Older sister: Jane Stenford, 23. Jane is studying Informatics in college, and apparently possesses her father's and sister's intellect. She's particularly good at hacking. She was the first person Emily came out to, and had a critical role in supporting her during her change as well as acting as a diplomat of sorts between Emily and her father. Her father is currently looking at her as his successor in guiding the family's firm. Emily is particularly close to Jane, who also takes care of her suit's software needs.

- Younger sister: Mary Stenford, 12. A little tomboish, very fond of her sisters, she wants to become a superhero too when she grows up.

- HAL: HAL is a small, white spherical robot the size of a basketball. It was built by Emily as a "pet project" - quite literally - and programmed by Jane. It behaves somehow like a dog and is roughly as smart. It is considered home's pet by the Stenfords and follows Emily around, playing with her and helping her in several tasks, including working on machines. It is completely useless in combat situations (Emily leaves him at home) and can deploy an array of weird looking tools with various purposes. In its name and shape it quotes some of Emily's favorite sci-fi. HAL can't talk, it communicates through beeps and flashing lights.

Description:
Age: 21
Gender: male to female transsexual
Ethnicity: undefined
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 110 lbs
Eyes: silver
Hair: white


Emily is of average height and has a slender build. Her mutation gave her a very dark skin, an androgynous build and white hair, that she keeps long, usually in a braid. Together with years of hormones she now makes for a very natural looking girl. Emily has a thing for wearing overly girly clothes, but she has a bad taste in them, something her sister Jane is slowly trying to correct now that Emily is a public figure.

Power Descriptions:

Emily is a mutant, and her mutation gave her very odd looks and boosted her intellect to high levels. Her love of engineering, together with her new improved mind allowed her to build a customized battlesuit she calls a Mobile Combat Platform (MCP). When wearing the suit, Emily is a walking battle tank devoted on fighting evil.

The suit itself is large, bulky and painted matt black with the Stenford Arms logo on its shoulders, looking a lot like a MEC from X-Com Enemy Within. On its right arm it sports a prototype Force Cannon, on her left arm a Flamethrower and it has a grenade launcher on its back, usually loaded with flashbangs. Whether Emily uses an helmet or not, the suit sports an holographic HUD with an integrated combat software.



History:

Emily was born Edgar Charles Jr. in Boston, second child of Edgar Charles Stenford Sr, the owner of one of the most important military development firms in the USA. Her mother died in 2009 in a car crash. Introduced at an early age to the family's business, she developed a keen interest for engineering. However, the young Edgar also came to understand quite early that he wanted to be a girl, growing more and more envious of his older sister's Jane when she entered her teen ages and started to develop. When she was 12, her mutation developed, bumping her from "smart kid" to "teen genius", the mad scientist kind. At the same time, her looks changed in an odd way: her skin darkened and her build became very androgynous, something she's always been thankful for.

A few years later, Emily finally built up the courage to come out as a transsexual and start her transition. While her sister Jane, who had known about Emily's secret for some time now, was delighted, their father was quite upset at first. It took a lot of time and work for them to get close again, and the gap never completely closed. Also, since Emily was the daughter of an important public figure, it was impossible to keep her change from being known. The fact of being publicly out as a transsexual, as well as a mutant, in one of the best rated high schools in Freedom caused her endless nightmares during her teens.

It was then that the idea of becoming a real superheroine, a mere fantasy before, took hold in the girl's mind, maybe because it would give her a real shot at changing a world she felt was uncaring and cruel, or maybe to show her father that she was still worth his love. Night after night she tinkered in her father's workshop, slowly making her combat exoskeleton a reality. When she graduated from high school, she set out to bring the fight to evil...

Being the genius, transsexual, mutant daughter of a multimillionaire makes Emily a gossip magnet. Publicly, her father backs her in an effort to improve his popularity, but in private he's still ashamed of her. While other people would relish in it, Emily hates the "celebrity" side of her life.

Personality & Motivation:

Emily always had two goals in life: becoming a woman, and becoming a superheroine. She's close enough to achieving the first and she's going for the second. As much as she would have loved to, having turned out quite good looking didn't make Emily less of a socially inept, hopeless nerd. Together with having been a long time target for discrimination, this makes her difficult to interact with at first. Once she builds up trust in someone, however, she can be warm and very friendly (although in a weird aching-for-company way).

Emily is also currently in a low phase in her love life: she never had troubles finding casual dates, but nobody appears to be interested in committing to a serious relationship with a freak, and dating a superheroine that owns a battle armor tends to be (unsurprisingly) devastating to a man's ego.
Despite the tensions between her father and her having eased up in the latest years, she never completely got over his disappointment when he discovered his only son wanted in fact to be a girl, and cares a lot for his opinion about her. She's driven to be a superheroine by two reasons: the first is to help the world become a better place, and the second is the fact it constantly pushes her to work harder on her inventions.

Powers & Tactics:

Having grown up in a military minded environment, Em is a firm believer in the tenant that a well planned and executed attack on a key enemy position can win an entire conflict. She applies the same principle to fighting crime: first, she finds out a weakness in her opponent's plan, then she equips her suit to best exploit it, and then she strikes with overwhelming force.
While her battlesuit is her preferred tool, she knows how to defend herself on foot and is no stranger to leaving the armor behind if the tactical situation calls for it.

Complications:

Prejudice: She's a transsexual mutant. What do you expect?
Fame: She's the daughter of a public figure and her father acts as her sponsor. Plus, she can't exactly go around unnoticed. As a result, she's been under the media's spotlight for some time now.

 

"It's not impossible, it's necessary": Emily is constantly out to test her limits and pit her skill and smarts against the hardest of challenges, seeing every problem as a puzzle to overcome using her ingenuity and refining her skill in the process. New things excite her to no end and she finds it hard to back away from an intellectual challenge.

 

Look at me, Daddy! Emily's greatest weakness is probably her inability to get past her father's initial rejection. While their relationship eased out somehow, she still feels she needs to prove him her worth, by any mean necessary. Whenever possible, she will try to please him and make him proud of her efforts.

 

Volatile Power Generator: Emily's MCP is powered by a small but very powerful reactor that could become extremely unstable and explode should her suit take heavy damage. She's currently working on a way to swap it out for a safer power generator, possibly one of extraterrestrial origin.

 

Abilities: +0 + 0 +0 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 7PP

Unarmored / Armored

Strength: 10 (+0) / 32 (+11)
Dexterity: 10 (+0)
Constitution: 10 (+0) / 14 (+2)
Intelligence: 14 (+2) -> 28 (+9) due to Enhanced INT
Wisdom: 12 (+1)
Charisma: 11 (+0)

Combat: 10 + 4 = 14PP
Initiative: +0
Attack: +6 unarmed (+5 base, +1 Attack Focus [Melee]), +9 Melee in suit (+5 base, +5 Attack Focus [Melee], -1 Size), +10 Force Cannon (+5 base, +4 Attack Specialization, +2 Accurate, -1 Size)
Grapple: +6 unarmored, +8 in suit (+27 w/ servo-motors on)
Defense: +4 unarmored, +6 in suit (+2 Base, +2 Dodge Focus, 0/-1 size bonus, +3 Combat Software)
Knockback: +1 unarmored, -11 in suit

Saving Throws: 2 + 4 + 2 = 8PP
Toughness: 0 unarmored (0 Con); +14 (+2 Con, +12 Protection [impervious 10]) armored
Fortitude: +2 unarmored (+2 base, +0 Con); +10 (+2 base, +2 Con, +6 Life Support) armored
Reflex: +4 (+4 base, +0 Dex) unarmored; +9 (+4 base, +0 Dex, +5 Evasion Software) armored
Will: +9 (+2 base, +1 Wis, +6 Mutant Mind)

Skills: 60R = 15PP
Computers 6 (+15, Skill Mastery)
Craft [Electronic] 6 (+15, Skill Mastery)
Craft [Mechanical] 6 (+15, Skill Mastery)
Diplomacy 6 (+6)
Disable Device 5 (+14)

Knowledge [Galactic Lore] 2 (+11)
Knowledge [Tactics] 6 (+15)
Knowledge [Technology] 6 (+15, Skill Mastery)

Language 2 (English native: Galstandard, Lor)
Notice 7 (+8)
Sense Motive 8 (+8)

Feats: 12PP
Benefit (Wealth 2)
Dodge Focus 2
Inventor
Improvised Tools
Luck 1
Skill Mastery (Computers, Craft [Electronic], Craft [Mechanical], Knowledge [Technology])
Master Plan
Attack Specialization (Force Cannon) 2
Attack Focus (Melee) 1

Powers: 101 PP

Mutant Mind: Enhanced INT 14 linked to Enhanced Will 6 (biological, mutant) [20PP]

Device 20 (Mobile Combat Platform, Flaws: Hard to Lose, gives 100 device pp, Feats: Restricted 1 [+10 Knowledge: Technology to use], ) [81PP] (all powers have technological descriptor)

Offensive Power: [24PP]

Base Power: Force Cannon (Blast 10, Feats: Accurate, 3 Alternate Powers) {21/21PP} (technology, kinetic)
Alternate Power: Servo-motors: Enhanced Strength 14 linked with Super Strength 3 (feat: Groundstrike) {21/21PP} (technology)
Alternate Power: Flamethrower (Blast 10, feat: area [cone], flaw: range [touch]) {20/21PP} (technology, fire)
Alternate Power: Flashbang Launcher, (Dazzle 7 visual senses, feat: area [burst]) {21/21PP} (technology, light)

Communication 4 (radio, 4 mile range) [4PP] (technology, radio)

Combat Software: [26PP] (technology)
[array][/array]Container: Enhanced Defense 3 {6PP}
Evasion software: Enhanced Reflex 5 {5PP}
Enhanced Feats 9 (Accurate Attack, Attack Focus [melee] 4, Improved Aim, Power Attack, Interpose, Precise Shot) {9PP}
Super-senses 6 (Direction Sense, Distance Sense, Infravision, Radio, Time Sense, Tracking [infravision]) {6PP}

Jump Pack: Leaping 6 (running jump 2000 ft, standing jump 1000 ft, high jump 500 ft.) [6PP] (technology)

Armored Plating: Protection 12 ( Extras: Impervious 10) [22PP] (technology)

Large Frame: Growth 4 (+8 STR, +4 CON, Large size; Flaw: permanent) [12PP] (technology)

Life Support: Enhanced Fortitude 6 [6PP] (Technological)

Drawbacks:

Normal Identity (full-round to don suit, Frequency: common, Intensity: major) [-4PP]
Vulnerable (EMP Attacks, Frequency: uncommon, Intensity: Moderate [+50% DC]) [-2 PP]

DC Block

Unarmed: +6, Touch, DC 15 (unarmored); +9, Touch, DC 26 (armored)
Force Cannon: +10, Ranged, DC 25
Flamethrower: Close 8 ft wide and long cone, DC 25
Flashbang: Ranged 40 ft radius burst, DC 17

Total Points Spent: Abilities 7 + Skills 15 + Feats 12 + Powers 101 + Combat 14 + Saves 8 - Drawbacks 6 = 151/158 PP Edited March 11, 2015 by Thevshi
+1pp Feb 2015

[Thevshi]

Okay SG, here are some comments for you. Though, normally, if you are going to put a character up in Character Building, it is best to give us a chance to comment there, before you put the character over into the Character Bank. Gives us a chance to hash out things there and not clutter the actual character thread with a lot of back and forth.

So, a couple of small fluff comments:

First, you mention Emily wearing lightweight combat armor under the mecha suit. But nothing about the build suggests such combat armor. So, probably best to drop that reference.

Also, while a 22 Int is very, very smart, it does not qualify as superhuman level intellect, you need to be hitting 26+ to fall in the superhuman level.

Also, small nitpick, for Emily’s older sister, Jane, why would she “inherit†her younger sister’s intellect? If anything, Jane is very smart, like her younger sister.

Stats are a bit low, but then the mecha makes up for that. But, there is some errors there. First, Int 22 costs 12 pp, not 10. 

You start with a 8 in Str, then add 8 from the mecha’s growth and sometimes 16 from enhanced str. That is +24 to 8, equaling only a 32, not 34.
Same with Con, base 8 plus 4 from growth is 12, not 14. (although you seem to use a 12 con in calculating your toughness and fort save)

You base grapple (outside the mecha) should be 5 (+6 BAB -1 Str). In the Mecha it is +7/+19 with a possible +0/+3 from super-strength.
You combat block is a bit off for the attack bonuses. As I read things, in the Mecha, you range attack bonus is only +6, but you have +8 with the force cannon. Also in the Mecha, your Melee attack bonus is +8, not you unarmed (as you bought attack focus melee as part of the combat program).
Also, you should list your defense as +8/+7 in Mecha. You defense/toughness is also slightly below your PL 10 power cap as a result.

Your exotic saves are a bit low for a PL 10 (+6 Fort and +4 Reflex)

You list 11 PP spent on feats, but I only count 9.

For you mecha:

The offensive array (blast and alt powers), you need to take a look at the normal formatting for powers (and arrays) and fix the listing. For example, with the flamethrower blast, I am not sure how you are calculating the cone range and pricing it. You need to list all extras and feats the power might have. Same for the flashbang dazzle.

For the Communication (radio), it has a 5 mile RANGE, not radius, as you did not buy the Area extra for it.

For the combat software, I count 11 feats there, not 10.

For you leaping power, you have not calculated it correctly. Leaping 6 gives you x100 leaping distance. This is based on your Strength bonus. In the Mecha, you have a base Str of 16 (+3), up to 32 (+11) when you use the Enhanced Str. Thus, your base jumping distance is 13 for a running long jump (24 when using enhanced str). Full leaping increases this to 1,300 feet/2,400 feet enhanced. Note, if you leap this full leaping distance, it will take 2 rounds to reach the full distance.

For the super-senses, not sure how you are calculating this, what is Blindsight? I am not seeing that as super-sense option in the UP.

For the Growth, you should list out what all that is giving you (the bonus str, con, attack/def penalty, and other adjustments)

Also, totaling all the powers in the Mecha (with the correct number for enhanced feats) I come up with 97 pp, so 2 pp over budget.

You also need to list the total of all your traits at the bottom of the sheet (see other character sheets for an example)

[souffle_girl]

OK, I've been through Emily's sheet again, this time using herolab to check the math. she should be OK, care to check?

Edited September 21, 2014 by souffle_girl

[Thevshi]

Okay, just a few more things to adjust.

For you combat block, I would not bother listing the +8 to range when in the suit, as that just ends up the same thanks to the AF: Range feat. But you should probably list that your +10 with the Force Cannon.

Your knockback in the suit would only be -11.

For your Toughness and Fort saves, you should probably list what they are outside of the suit.

I would just make your combat software a container (with 3.8 ranks), then you do not need everything linked together like you have it listed. It is basically what you have done, just does not require the linking.

For the Protection, you already have +1 from Con from the suit’s Growth, so 13 ranks of protection would put you at +14 toughness, and over caps. So you need to drop that down by 1, which frees up on point in the armor.

Also, your character’s stats are looking very slim, we generally like to see PCs that have a bit more investment in stats.

And one little point, you talk about your character being military minded, but the character has no Kn: Tactics. Master Plan aside, that really does not make her particularly skilled at tactics.

[souffle_girl]

Please just delete this thread, I'll repost the character once more experienced character builders have given it a look...

[trollthumper]

We're fine with keeping the thread around while you tweak Mechanized in Character Building. Just let us know when you're good to go.

[souffle_girl]

OK, I think she's ready for official review and changed the sheet here accordingly.

What I didn't change was her base abilities, as she's just a normal human outside of her suit (and a fairly weak one), so it didn't make much sense for her to have more than average abilities.

[Thevshi]

A "normal" human with +9 Will and Reflex saves and +8 base attack bonus?  Generally our "normal" characters are still a bit above the baseline bystander in at least a few attributes. 

 

A couple of small math errors.  Your Notice should only be +7, as you no longer have a Wis bonus.  For the Combat Software, it is 21 pp in the container not 20, which is actually fine, as you need that extra 1 pp to use all 95 pp in the armor.

 

For the Superstrength feat, it is Groundstrike, not Ground Pound.

 

A couple of small formating suggestions, for your Array and the Container, you should have a lead  title for each that does not have the array tags.  For example, you array should look like this:

 

Offensive Systems 10.5 (21 PP Array, 3 Alternate Powers) [24PP]

Base Power:

Alternate Power

Etc...

 

Also, the base power and each alternate power in the array should have their point cost designated at the end with {} around them.  For example, the Force Cannon would have its cost marked as {21/21}, indicating it is using all 21 points in the array.  The Flamethrower would be {20/21}.  All the sub parts to the container need to have their individual costs notated that way as well.

 

This allows us to see exactly what is within an array or container and know the costs associated with each.

 

And one final thing, unfortunately, you currently have 79 PP spent on Emily for when she is outside the armor, but only 77 PP spent on the armor.  This means she would no longer qualify for the Normal Identity drawback, which requires the "normal" character to be built on no more than half (or less) of the total power points for the build.

[trollthumper]

All looks good. Just adjust the math on the Fortitude save (should be +2, +2, and +6, not +2, +1, and +6).

[Thevshi]

Over all is looking good SG, only there are errors on the attack line in combat.  You have forgotten to account for the -1 for the size penalty of the suit.  As such, your Melee in suit would be +8 (+4 base +5 AF: Melee -1 size).  For the Force Cannon, it would also be +9 (+4 base +6 AS -1 size).  The base range attack bonus would only be +3 in the suit.

[Thevshi]

Okay SG, just a few more small things (one I just noticed).  We are almost there!

 

Need to list the -1 size for the Force Cannon.

 

I just realized that you still have Enhanced Str 14 in the array, even though you bumped her base strength to 10.  This means you will have a Str 34 when using that alt slot, for a +12 dam bonus, which works just fine with your reduced Melee attack bonus of +8.  You will need to list that you have a -2 atk/+2 dam trade off for Melee.

 

Your grapple line needs some correction.  +5 unarmored is right.  Armored it becomes +8, and +27 with the servo-motors active (+8 melee +12 Str bonus +3 Super-strength +4 from size).

[souffle_girl]

STR is 32: 10 + 14 enhanced, +8 for size. For a total of +11 modifier. Meaning Unarmed DC is 26 and grapple is +7 or +26

[Thevshi]

Right, sorry, did not calculate all that out, just saw you sticking with the same and remembering the bump to base Str.  Should have calculated it all out. 

 

Anyway, just slightly below PL caps offensively, but that can be corrected when you pick up a bit of experience.

 

APPROVED

[souffle_girl]

thanks for your patience

[trollthumper]

I'm seeing an issue with TOU. Your listing still acts like the character has -1, not +0, CON. Your DEF/TOU trade-offs reflect this, as you have +7 DEF/+13 TOU in the Armor. But with +0 CON, you have +7 DEF/+14 TOU in the armor, meaning you're PL10.5 defensively. You could tune down the DEF - we allow a maximum -5/+5 trade-off - but you will need to get one side of that down in order to hit PL10. You might then be able to take 2 points off of the base Defense (we require you to have at least 1/3 of your Defense come from your base, and if you have +6, +2 works for that) and apply it to base Attack, meaning you'd then be about PL10 offensively.

[souffle_girl]

I'm seeing an issue with TOU. Your listing still acts like the character has -1, not +0, CON. Your DEF/TOU trade-offs reflect this, as you have +7 DEF/+13 TOU in the Armor. But with +0 CON, you have +7 DEF/+14 TOU in the armor, meaning you're PL10.5 defensively. You could tune down the DEF - we allow a maximum -5/+5 trade-off - but you will need to get one side of that down in order to hit PL10. You might then be able to take 2 points off of the base Defense (we require you to have at least 1/3 of your Defense come from your base, and if you have +6, +2 works for that) and apply it to base Attack, meaning you'd then be about PL10 offensively.

Thanks for pointing out. I modified the sheet like you suggested, which also takes partial care of lack of offense.

[trollthumper]

APPROVED