Build a Hero: Help me understand M&M

[Tinner]

I've just recently picked up Mutants & Masterminds 2e, and I'm sufferring from the same problems I had with Champions.
Great game. Massively flexible. Too much work to make the hero I want!
This is probably caused by my early fascination with the old TSR Marvel SH RPG. Man I loves me some Universal Table/FASERIP action!

So this is a plea to those of you who DO have a grasp of building a M&M2e character.
Can you help me make one?
I'd really appreciate a step by step walkthrough showing me how you spent the points, and why.
I know what kind of PC I want, but have no idea how to get there. I see all those options, and my brain just shuts off.

I'm trying to build a PL 10, PP 150 hero that is essentially a cross between The Thing from the Fantastic Four, and the Golgothan from Dogma.
He's essentially an animated, sentient pile of super strong sludge.
I know I want him to be a grapple specialist, and be able to sprout extra limbs like a Star Frontiers Dralasite. I'd like him to be permanently Large sized too. Since he's not exactly human, he shouldn't need to breathe - probably has some life support. Since he's a human-shaped ooze, he should also be immune to criticals. Aside from STR and CON, his stats are probably just baseline human.

So, any help out there?

 

[Kenson]

I'm trying to build a PL 10, PP 150 hero that is essentially a cross between The Thing from the Fantastic Four, and the Golgothan from Dogma. He's essentially an animated, sentient pile of super strong sludge.

I know I want him to be a grapple specialist, and be able to sprout extra limbs like a Star Frontiers Dralasite.

Additional Limbs. Let's give him 3 ranks, for up to five extra limbs. Since he can presumably grow or withdraw these limbs at will, we'll make the power Continuous (a +1 modifier). That's (rank 3 x 2 points) = 6 points.

I'd like him to be permanently Large sized too.

Good choice, since being large is another +4 grapple bonus. That's Growth, 4 ranks (for large size), and Permanent (+0 net cost) for (4 ranks x 3 points) = 12 points.

Note that his permanent Growth gives him +8 Str, +4 Con, an additional 10 ft. reach, and +5 Str for his carrying capacity. He's also at –1 on attack and defense vs. medium sized opponents. That'll be important later.

Since he's not exactly human, he shouldn't need to breathe - probably has some life support. Since he's a human-shaped ooze, he should also be immune to criticals.

So we're definitely looking at Immunity (life support) along with Immunity (critical hits). That's 11 ranks of immunity altogether, costing 11 points. He might also have immunity to starvation, sleep, or some other effects, but I'm going to leave those off for now.

Aside from STR and CON, his stats are probably just baseline human.

So let's figure this guy is a bit of a bruiser and give him Str 32 and Con 32, trading down his max attack/defense bonus to bump his damage/Toughness bonus by 1. Those scores would normally cost 22 points each, or 44 total, but his permanent Growth lowers Str cost by 8 points to 14 and Con cost by 4 points to 18, for a total of 32 points.

So we've spent 6 + 12 + 11 + 32 = 71 points so far. Let's look at what else our guy needs:

• If he's only semi-solid, he wants at least rank 1 Insubstantial, and it should be permanent (+0 net cost). That's 5 points.

• He should be pretty tough to put down. He's already got a +11 Toughness save (from his Con) but let's make some of that Impervious; 8 points of Impervious Toughness costs 8 points and gives our guy virtual immunity to small arms and similar attacks. That's 8 points.

• He needs to be really strong. Let's give him 8 ranks of Super-Strength. That's a +40 Str bonus on carrying capacity, for a heavy load of 266 tons (give or take). More important, it's a +8 grapple check bonus. That's 16 points (8 ranks x 2 points).

• He needs combat abilities. We dropped his max atk/def, but lets max them out to +9 each. On second thought, let's drop his attack bonus down to +6 and give him 3 ranks of Attack Focus (melee) for a +9 melee attack, +6 ranged. That's 12 points for attack (6 x 2), 18 points for defense (9 x 2) and 3 points for the feats = 33 points.

Now we've spent 133 points. That leaves 18 to spend on other ability scores, skills, or additional feats or powers. Some options:

• Feats like Improved Grab, Improved Grapple, and Improved Pin are a virtual must.

• Maybe a few more Immunities in there.

• Consider a Super-Strength feat or two.

• Maybe ranks in Morph for imitating rocks or something?

Round things out as you see fit.

 

[Hjorimir]

Obviously, Kenson is the MAN (seeing how his name appears on the front cover). As to methodology, I would say that when I create a character I first choose a theme (i.e. a concept), which you've already done here. Great. Then I select an aspect to focus on (i.e. Stats, Skills, Feats, or Powers). Not to say that any one of those is the only thing cool about the character, but it is a place to start. For example:

I want to build the Batman: I start with Skills because that is just how the character strikes me, Feats would pull a very close second.

Superman? I start with Powers and right from the start make sure I determine how his Drawbacks work as they are a defining aspect of the character.

With what you described I would start with Powers to make sure I nail down what makes THE SLUDGE!!! what he is and then round him out with skills/feats/stats/combat as necessary.

 

[Wardo]

Great advice all around. Also, to help manage all those points as you tiwddle the character to exactly where you want it, I recommend Simpson's Excel Character Builder for M&M:

http://www.elyzium.net/mnm/

 

[Thanee]

One small addition... if you want him to be naturally large (not enlarged by some kind of effect), then you need to take the Innate Power Feat for Permanent Growth.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Sketchpad]

I'd have to agree with the Innate feat