Warp (PL10)

[yurklenorf]

Below is my first submission for Warp. A few minor issues, mostly writer's block related, on my end (lack of Complications is the biggest thing right now). Working on the 20Q and HellQ off and on when I feel like I can get into the character's head.

Player Name: yurklenorf
Character Name: Warp
Power Level: 10 (150PP)
Trade-Offs: None
Progress to Bronze Status: 0/30

In Brief: Empowered to alter spatial dynamics through a genetic mutation.

Alternate Identity: Alan Douglas Wheeler
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
Occupation: Part time night-time security at FCU, also part-time student.
Affiliations: (none at the moment)
Family: Anna Wheeler (mother), Michael Wheeler (father), Jordan Wheeler (brother), Katrina Wheeler (sister)

Description:
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 220 lbs
Eyes: green, with specks of brown
Hair: Brown and shaggy, in dire need of a haircut.

Power Descriptions: Alan's controls over small amounts of space have allowed him to do some fascinating things - which is why he took up some schooling in physics. As far as he can tell, when he "teleports" it isn't so much him moving from one place to another, it's taking Point A and Point B, drawing a line between them, then bringing A and B right next to each other. When he's fighting an opponent at range, he "buckles" space around the opponent - like snapping a rubber band, but with three-dimensional space. When someone gets up close, he's able to quickly contract space between his limbs and his opponent - and since force is equal to mass times acceleration, is able to do substantial damage to even the most hardened foes.

 

History:

Alan was, unknowingly a mutant. Unfortunately for him, his mutation kicked in at the age of 23, while at a music festival in central Illinois with some of his friends.

Lucky for him, they were all cool with it, and even thrilled that he got to have superpowers. Many of them hung around while he trained with his powers, and one of them suggested that he join a martial arts class to learn how to fight, which he took up but abandoned not long after starting, after a scare when he thought he accidentally used his powers while practicing some of the strikes.

At the age of 25, Alan bid farewell to his friends and family, and moved to Freedom City, where he took a job as a night security guard for FCU and began studying physics.

Last year, he ran into a small cult lead by a man wielding magic, and he learned of his powers apparent ineffectiveness against magical attacks, though he still managed to thwart the cult's plans. This has lead to him searching for reasons why his own particular brand of reality-warping is not as effective against other varieties.

He has yet to join any of the currently-operating teams in Freedom City, though he feels that he wants to change that and take a more active job in the defense of Freedom City.

 

Personality & Motivation: Alan is usually the silent type, but opens up around friends. As such, he doesn't try verbal trickery very often. While intelligent and generally kind, he has n

 

Powers & Tactics: Alan tends toward the defensive quite often, throwing up spatial distortions that protect allies and civilians from threats. In smaller encounters, he brings his meager, mostly self-taught martial arts skills into play, punishing opponents with powerful blows using his powers.

 

Complications:

Motivation - Protection: Alan feels a strong need to protect others, and will leave himself unprotected if it means he can better protect others.

Weakness - Magic: For some reason that he has yet to figure out, Alan's defensive abilities are less effective against enemies wielding offensive magic.

 

Abilities: 2 + 6 + 6 + 2 + 6 + 0 = 22PP
Strength 12 (+1)
Dexterity 16 (+3)
Constitution 16 (+3)
Intelligence 12 (+1)
Wisdom 16 (+3)
Charisma 10 (+0)

 

Combat: 10 +10 = 20PP

Initiative: +3

Attack: +10 Melee, +10 Ranged

Grapple: +11

Defense: +10 (+10 Base, +0 Dodge Focus), +5 Flat-Footed

Knockback: -7

 

 

Saving Throws: 6 + 6 + 6 = 18PP

Toughness: +10 (+3 Con, +7 [Force Field], +6 Impervious)

Fortitude: +9 (+3 Con, +6)

Reflex: +9 (+3 Dex, +6)

Will: +9 (+3 Wis, +6)

 

 

Skills: 48R = 12PP
Concentration 8 (+11)
Gather Information 8 (+8)
Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 8 (+9)
Notice 8 (+11)
Search 8 (+9)
Sense Motive 8 (+11)

 

 

Feats: 11PP
Eagle Eyes (Super-Senses 1: Extended Vision)
Evasion 2
Elusive Target
Dazzling Attack (Visual)
Improved Aim
Instant Up
Precise Shot
Unbalancing Strike - instead of doing normal melee damage after an attack, you can choose for the target to make a reflex vs (10 + damage rank); failure means target loses dodge bonus to reflex for the next round
Uncanny Dodge 2 (Visual, Auditory)

Powers: 10 + 10 + 27 = 47PP

Force Field 7 (Extra: Impervious 6 [+1], Flaw: Limited [Impervious Does Not Work Against Magic; -1]) [10PP]

Teleport 10 (10,000 feet; Power Feats: Turnabout, Change Velocity, Change Direction; Flaw: Short-Range [-1]) [13PP]

Blast 10 (Power Feats: Improved Range 2 , Progression [Range] 2, Alternate Power 3) [27PP]

• Alternate Power: Strike 10 (Extra: Penetrating) [20PP]
• Alternate Power: Create Object 10 (Power Feats: Selective, Stationary, Subtle) [23PP]
• Alternate Power: Deflect 10 (all ranged [3pp/rank], Flaws: Full-Round Action -1, Limited (does not work against magic effects) -1, Distracting -1; Extras: Burst Area +1, Reflective +1; Power Feat: Selective) [21PP]

DC Block

 

ATTACK              RANGE          SAVE                           EFFECT

Unarmed             Touch          DC18 Toughness (Staged)        Damage (Physical)

Strike              Touch          DC25 Toughness (Staged)        Damage (Physical)

Strike              Touch          DC20 Reflex (Staged)           Unbalancing Strike (target loses dodge bonus for the next round)

Strike              Touch          DC20 Fortitude (Staged)        Blinded (Dazzling Attack)

 

Totals: Abilities (22) + Combat (20) + Saving Throws (18) + Skills (12) + Feats (11) + Powers (47) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/150 Power Points

[Avenger Assembled]

Couple of things - 

I like the concept and backstory well enough. Note that being a mutant isn't particularly discriminated against in Freedom City. It's more like pre-New 52 DC, where everyone loves people with superpowers, why not? 

We prefer that you just use Teleport as written, no need to call it Spatial Control. 

Please use the array structure as seen in sample builds like my All-New Oddballs thread in Character Building. 

That arrangement of Deflect is suggested in the text - but is actually a crummy deal. I suggest instead you do something like: 

AP: Enhanced Impervious Toughness 1 (Extras: Reflective 2 [all attacks]) {21}

That way anything stopped by his Impervious will be flipped around and shot back at the enemy. 

[yurklenorf]

Rav, Vahnyu and I actually came up with the Deflect thing a few days ago. This allows me to basically roll a group Deflect as described in UP, and I believe he even said that it's one of the best/most effective forms of Deflect that he's seen.

Spatial Control is just the name of one of the Teleport effects in both the core and UP. I can change some stuff in terms of descriptions, obviously not entirely finalized, I copied and pasted most of what I had from the topic in Character building.

I tried to copy and paste the array code from... Newbie's Guide, I think? It didn't work. Haven't finalized formatting, anyway, but that goes without saying.

 

Storywise, I didn't intend for the whole mutation thing to be a negative - more like, it happened, surprised a lot of people, his friends don't care or think it's awesome.

[Gizmo]

'Most effective form of Deflect' is a bit like saying 'most palatable swamp water': better than being the worst but still shouldn't be your first choice. Putting the Reflective Extra on your Force Field is definitely the way to go for the effect you're after. It even makes the magic limitation neater, since you're already getting that discount. I'd specifically build it as:

• AP: Impervious 4 (Total 10; Flaws: Limited [Non-Magic]) + Reflective 10 [2 + 20 = 22PP]

That's much tidier, requires fewer rolls and is more reliable than what you've got right now. A setting where Warp just turtles up probably won't be the most exciting use of your turn too often but when you do want it that's the way to do it. To protect multiple people, not just Warp, use Create Object to form a barrier for them.

You've undercharged yourself on your Teleport power in your totals: with those Power Feats it's 13PP, not 10PP.

I've taken the liberty of tidying up your formatting a bit without actually changing anything. With the upgrade to the site we don't have as ready an example to work from as I'd usually like!

[yurklenorf]

Ah, good catch on the Teleport, somehow missed that one... I can make do without the power feats for right now, I think. They're not really essential to him, anyway.

The idea behind his defense (crunched as Force Field, though that's not exactly what I would call it in fluff) is more to just warp stuff around him - I don't quite envision him as having the skill yet to fully recurve attacks back around at his enemies, hence why I didn't end up grabbing Reflective for the Deflect.

I could keep that Deflect aside as an idea to use as a Power Stunt, since it is useful, but as you mention it's turtling up which can lead to kind of boring encounters.

I think I might just take the Deflect off and leave that array with just two APs, take Change Velocity and Change Direction off of Teleport, and keep Turnabout - that should bring me back to 150.

[Gizmo]

Sounds like a good plan!

I'd like to see Alan's History section fleshed out some more, with an eye towards his earlier life and his more recent motivations. We're dropped in when he's 23 with no sense of where he came from; that's old enough to have already graduated from a four year university program if he pursued a degree after high school. Did he go straight into the workforce after school or just bum around and only decided to go to university after getting his powers or is he pursuing a second degree? Maybe he dropped out originally? There are a lot of ways you could go there and each one would suggest a different personality for Alan.

The martial arts classes seem like an odd non-sequitur. I get that you want to justify his more than competent fighting skills but I'd either drop that bit and just play up his training as a security guard or else expand upon that point. Was another student injured by Alan's accidental use of his powers making him reluctant to try hero work in case he made another mistake? Did he get into an argument with his teacher over a point of principle? Right now it's a throw away line that tells us why Alan has a +10 attack bonus but nothing about him as a person.

His complications say that he has a strong need to protect others but it sounds like its taken him five years to decide to actively use his abilities to become a hero. He left his family behind for Freedom City, was that because the job opportunity as a security guard his dream job, was he desperate to get out of his small town, was he hoping to meet other people with powers? How did he randomly run into a cult? Was it in the course of his job, his first foray into costumed adventuring, trying to convince a friend not to join up? He's been in Freedom City for three years now, but we're not told in his history if he's been fighting crime or training or biding his time or focusing on his studies.

Imagine that the History section is Alan's first, solo movie, your chance to tell his origin and/or his first big adventure and sell the audience on him as a character so that they're excited to see him in the big team-up movie that comes next. You need to convince the reader that they want to see more of this guy!

From there you should be able to expand upon Personality and Motivation, too and it wouldn't hurt to add another Complication or two, especially since you won't get an HP for his magic vulnerability when you're already getting PP back for the Limited Flaw.

[yurklenorf]

Hmm.... yeah, thanks. This is where I'm weakest. I can work on the mechanical side all day and be mostly fine, but writing characters is still something I'm relatively new at and so I get stuck on the story side of things. At least this gives me something to think about while I'm out and about today.

[Tiffany Korta]

I've moved this to Character Building so you can work on this a little more, if you need a few idea come and chat with us all.