[OOC] M&M 2nd: Gotham Squires

[jkason]

Took a crack at this. I'm not especially good with M&M character builds, so who knows if he's even a playable character, but I liked the concept of a nice, basic, 'immovable object' type; a tough guy with a good heart if not a lot of training.

Brick

Real Name:Ben O'hare

Background:Even as a child, folks told Ben he was "built like a brick s***house," a phrase which eventually became his nickname, Brick. What they didn't know was exactly how tough Ben was, a fact he kept hidden most of his life at the behest of his mother. When their low-income neighborhood began to get even worse in the wake of Batman's disappearance, however, the young man decided it was time to stop playing nice, and began acting as a neighborhood watchdog / enforcer against the creeping corruption and danger on his streets.

PL: 9 (135pp)

Abilities: STR: 10 (+0) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 10 (+0) INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 13 (+1) CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: Intimidate 8 (+10), Drive 1 (+3), Notice 3 (+4)

Feats: Attack Focus (melee) 9, Attack Specialization (Heavy Pistol) 2, Diehard, Fast Overrun, Fighting Style: Wrestling (Chokehold, Improved Grab, Improved Grapple, Improved Pin, Power Attack), Improved Block 1, Improved Crit (Strike) 2, Improved Overrun, Interpose, Startle, Stunning Attack, Equipment 5

Powers: Immovable 8 (Unstoppable), Leaping 4, Protection 10 (Impervious), Strike 9 (Penetrating), Super-Strength 4

Combat: Attack +0 (+4 Heavy Pistol, +9 Strike, +13 Grapple), Defense 18 (Tradeoff: Toughness), Init +2

Saves: Toughness +10 (Impervious, Tradeoff: Defense) Fortitude +9 Reflex +2 Will +1

Equipment: Binoculars, Cell Phone, Commlink, Flash Goggles, Flashlight, Gas Mask, Vehicle: Motorcycle, Heavy Pistol (Stun Ammo)

Abilities 11 + Skills 3 (12 Ranks) + Feats 30 + Powers 66 + Combat 16 + Saves 9 = 135pp

 

[Voda Vosa]

Sounds solid. Some questions:
Is the Penetrating feat of strike accounted in the spent points?
Shouldn't you allocate some points in Will? I think it's kind of low.

 

[perrinmiller]

I am looking at Octavia's Background (I think that will be her name). I have a rough idea already, but it is lending itself to more of an evil type campaign.

@ WD; For lack of any better way of putting it, she was a Lawful Neutral type person and slid to Lawful Evil. Question is, how far do I need to bring her back. With it being a dark setting but yet fighting bad guys, can I leave her at LE or does she need to be on a path of redemption and more LN?

 

[jkason]

Sounds solid. Some questions:
Is the Penetrating feat of strike accounted in the spent points?
Shouldn't you allocate some points in Will? I think it's kind of low.

I believe the strike is figured right. I used Hero Lab's demo version to do the build since I didn't have my PDF with me. That lists the power as 1/rank + 1/rank for the penetrating extra. 18 points on the whole shebang. (for the rest, Hero Lab shows Immovable (Unstoppable) for 16 points, Leaping 4 points, Protection (Impervious) 20 points, and 8 points for Super-Strength.

I thought about bumping the non-physical saves, but I'd conceived of him as a kind of big, solid, meatshieldy type. Up until the campaign, I think he's largely been dealing with street-level threats, where his strength and invulnerability are generally all he's needed. Made sense conceptually to me, then, that he wouldn't be especially resilient to mental attacks (which is what Will saves are for, yes?)

If it's exceptionally bad (like I said, I haven't been able to play many M&M encounters, so I don't have a good feel for how the numbers translate into effective combat) I could probably shuffle things around a bit. I've been debating whether the Leaping power really fits him, for example (though, with everyone else having some kind of movement power, I'm afraid he'd be left behind a lot without it), so I could reduce or eliminate it and bump the other saves with the points.

I am looking at Octavia's Background (I think that will be her name). I have a rough idea already, but it is lending itself to more of an evil type campaign.

@ WD; For lack of any better way of putting it, she was a Lawful Neutral type person and slid to Lawful Evil. Question is, how far do I need to bring her back. With it being a dark setting but yet fighting bad guys, can I leave her at LE or does she need to be on a path of redemption and more LN?

I'm wondering a bit about Brick's background. Looking back over the submissions, looks like most of the characters are at best morally questionable, and Brick as-written may be a tad too traditionally 'good guy' for the group. Though I suspect he's not exactly a saint; the folks he catches are likely to be suffering more than a few broken bones instead of being neatly tied up with just a stern warning. Would also be pretty easy to turn him into an enforcer for the wrong side, I suppose. Then again, the tension of having him working with the others might make for some fun RP. And, if the story has some redemptive element, he might help encourage that direction in the others.

I'm not married to it either way. Just brainstorming.

jason

 

[perrinmiller]

Jason; I would wait for Walking Dad to chime in on my question. I think the idea is to be good guys and someone has to represent that end of the spectrum to keep the rest of us in line. As much fun as Lawful Evil can be, it is also hard to do it justice with a PG-13 rating. But then, that's where creativity comes in.

 

[Herobizkit]

Need help with Powers

Here is a bare-bones version of my Tron-ish battlesuit character. Bolded numbers are the totals for each section.

(16) Str 10 0,0
Dex 12 +2, 2
Con 14 +2, 4
Int 14 +2, 4
Wis 16 +3, 6
Cha 10 0,0

(20) Attack +5 10
Defense +5 10

(20) Toughness +5, 5
Fort +3, 3
Reflex +6, 6
Wil +6, 6

(16) Acrobatics 8, Drive 8, Investigate 8, Notice 8, Profession: Officer 8, Search 8, Sense Motive 8, Survival 8

(11) Acrobatic Bluff 1, Elusive Target 1, Evasion 1, Improved Block 1, Improved Disarm 1, Jack of All Trades 1, Precise Shot 1, Takedown Attack 1, Track 2, Weapon Bind 1

Battle Suit: (56)
(4) [Plasma Blade] Plasma 3, (Range: Touch -1)
(10) [Shield] Deflect 5 (Ranged and Melee attacks)
(16) Enhanced Str 16
(9) Immunity 9 - Life support (includes immunity to diseases, poison, all environmental hazards and suffocation)
(5) [Body Armor] Protection (Impervious+1) 4
(9) Super-Senses 9 [darkvision, direction sense, distance sense, infravision, low-light, radio, time sense, track 2]
(3) Leaping 3
Also: Drawback (Normal Identity) (-4).

Ok, I've made budget at 135, but I'm not sure my concept matches my abilities.

Here is where I'm having difficulty. This is what I'm trying to model:

• A highly-protective yet stunningly sleek body armor with two modes.
• The first mode is body armor plus separate motorcycle. In motorcycle mode, I'd like the ability to drive as fast as your top-of-the-line street bike as well as make booster-powered leaps. The character will have to wield weapons/guns normally.
• The second mode is combined body armor/motorcycle "gestalt". In this mode, the armor is "better", offering more protection, adding a pair of metal-piercing retractable plasma-blades to the forearms. The Plasma can be fired from either blade as a ranged attack. Character can still wield other weapons/guns normally. Though not vital, it might be interesting to add a variety of mini-missiles to the armor (smoke, fire-retardant, armor-piercing, frag... can this be handled as 'gear' versus 'powers'?). The reasoning behind the leaping+gliding is that the suit doesn't offer true flight, but with a powered leap, the armor can glide (as far as twice the jump height, hence the leaping) and be steered with the flight power.
• The battlesuit is designed to add +16 strength for melee power. I also envision a futuristic halberd for possible use.

The overall concept is trying to combine the battlesuit and weapon-master archetypes with a 'failed' police officer turned bounty hunter persona.

Is the transforming bike a "special effect", or do i actually have to make two separate "characters" (motorbike and rider) and Gestalt the powers?

 

[Voda Vosa]

I would:

1) Take away those points spent in combat, and assign the device (battlesuit) Protection, Shield or buy some feats, like attack focus or attack specialization. They are cheaper. You actually have protection 9, so Toughness should be +9

2) Reduce your Ench Str bonus.

3) You must specify the bonus you want from immunity.

4) Why you need such a high Dex? If you are going to hit with that plasma 9 you got there, better take some feat to increase your attack instead of spending in dex.

 

[Herobizkit]

Thanks, Vosa! But I wonder if you might clarify your ideas for me.

1) Which points in combat should I subtract?

2) The 150-point Battlesuit template has Enhanced Str 26. I'm trying to make this character a melee-based one, so more H2H damage, the better.

3) Same Immunities as the one in the template... I just didn't write them down.

4) I don't know why I needed a high Dex. The weapon-master template had a high Dex, and I do see my character as foolishly agile even without the suit. I think I married the high Dex with Acrobatic Bluff and just the overall impression of "woah this girl can MOVE". May consider marrying enhanced Dex with the suit, too.

 

[perrinmiller]

Hero;
Since we are supposed to be below the regular Gotham heroes, maybe just dial back everything from the templates. i.e. reduce the immunities and protection.
Also for Protection 9 (Impervious 9), I thought that costs 18?

 

[Herobizkit]

Dialing back is a challenge (not a problem), but it's hard to know where to dial back when you have absolutely NO frame of reference other than the templates.

ie how low is too low? How high is too high? Is there a more efficient use of my points for what I want to do? Am I trying to do too much? Too little?

[edit] Okay, I made some changes to get the character to scale. PEACH it, please.