How would you add Sylar to your game?

[Piratecat]

He'd be simple to replicate in Mutants and Masterminds (and perhaps in True 20). If he only uses one power at a time, it's a matter of getting a free "I forget what it's called but it lets you pick an alternate power" feat every time he offs someone.

 

[Rystil Arden]

He'd be simple to replicate in Mutants and Masterminds (and perhaps in True 20). If he only uses one power at a time, it's a matter of getting a free "I forget what it's called but it lets you pick an alternate power" feat every time he offs someone.

Definitely, and you could stick those feats as alts of a Mimic or Drain primary. That has the side-effect of only allowing him to use one power at once, though, like Peter. I might throw in the power feat to let him mix more than one of his alts at once (at reduced power adding up to his total maximum for the main).

 

[JVisgaitis]

Heroes started really slow, but the last 2 episodes were awesome with this past episode being one of the coolest ever for a TV show. I never saw the "Sylar thing" coming. BTW, what was with the scar on Peter Petrelli? He has Claire's ability to heal, why would he have a scar?

Sorry, I'm totally not answering your question...

Other then just giving a random bunch of special abilities to a character, I'd go with Set's PrC.

 

[Piratecat]

No spoilers!

Haven't seen last night's episode yet.

 

[Bacris]

He'd be simple to replicate in Mutants and Masterminds (and perhaps in True 20). If he only uses one power at a time, it's a matter of getting a free "I forget what it's called but it lets you pick an alternate power" feat every time he offs someone.

Except the gained power would have to be one the target had

 

[Henry]

In D&D, I'd make it unique: when he kills someone, he basically GESTALTS their level and class into himself. He'd be a god in pretty short order, and killing him before he gets to that point would push the campaign at breakneck pace.

 

[AuraSeer]

I wouldn't use him at all. He's boring enough in the show, where the only reason he's survived this long is because the people who keep catching him are stupid. In game, either the PCs would kill him in session one, or he'd be kept alive by DM Fiat which would rightly annoy the players.

Anyone else remember the old White Wolf modules featuring Samuel Haight? He had a similar gimmick. He started out as a normal human, and by the end of the series he had just every type of power that existed in the WW games, even the mutually exclusive ones. It sounded like a good idea on paper, but in game it turned out to be one of the least fun concepts I ever encountered.

 

[Kunimatyu]

In D&D, I'd make it unique: when he kills someone, he basically GESTALTS their level and class into himself. He'd be a god in pretty short order, and killing him before he gets to that point would push the campaign at breakneck pace.

He would, though, be limited by the overall level of things he's killed and by the gestalt effect, though, so after he's killed a 5th-level Monk, there's no point in ever killing a 5th level character for their saves, for instance.

In terms of his feats, I wouldn't just grant him every single feat he's eaten - I'd have him work like the Man-at-Arms in Iron Heroes -- every "feat" slot Sylar has can be filled with any of his eaten feats, and he can empty his feat slots with 1 hour of meditation.

I also think that limiting his abilities to humans and perhaps one other monster type would be wise - if he's running around with Koa-Toa skin, a Purple Worm's stinger, and Babau slime, it'll get really retarded, really fast. He'd be an effective villain in D&D even if he was just a spell-eater or just a feat-eater.

 

[Umbran]

In D&D, I'd make it unique: when he kills someone, he basically GESTALTS their level and class into himself. He'd be a god in pretty short order, and killing him before he gets to that point would push the campaign at breakneck pace.

Well, here's an important question - "d20" does not tell you as much as you might think about the game and it's style. I'd actually not try to do Sylar in a typical D&D game world, but I'd not balk at doing him in a Mutants and Masterminds game.

What his ability means changes depending on what the population around him is like. And that's fairly central to the character.

 

[Set]

I worked mine up on a D&D / d20 fantasy assumption.

For Mutants & Masterminds, he just needs a Variable Power array with a honkin' enormous flaw on it that he has to eat the brain of someone with a power to add it to his array.

So far, he's only been shown using one power at a time, so it would be fine as a standard array, although I'd make it Dynamic for the times when he wants to be able to fly while invisible, or regenerate while throwing people around.

It would take like 30 seconds to work up in that game.