[M&M] Building a better Brick

[Neowolf]

I'm working on building a Brick (super-strong, super-tough) character as a villain in my game, and looking for a bit of advice.

So far, here are his powers (PL 10):

Super-Strength +10 (Extra: Protection; Power Stunts: Lethal, Lifting; Total Cost: 54 pp)
Super-Constitution +10 (Flaw: Missing Effect - Damage Save; Total Cost: 30)
Strike +10 (Stunt: Dual Damage; Total Cost: 22 pp)

Any suggestions/ideas?

 

[DanMcS]

Yeah, he's not getting anything from that strike power. Super-Str basically has strike built in to it, so he's already got his damage bonus from a power maxed out. You've already got the stunt for lethal damage on super-strength, so just drop the whole strike thing and save 22 points. What is the power stunt: lifting? I don't recall that one.

If your concept is just that he's a really tough, built, strong guy, then it wouldn't be out of line to make super-con an extra on super-str, takes you down to 7 points per rank, saving 10 total.

If you really wanted to munchkin it out, make it
Super-Strength (extras: protection; amazing-save: fort; regen) for a cost of 7 per rank. That has the same effect as super-con and as a bonus, you regenerate 1 hit per round.

There's no real reason to do that, but it's doable.

More seriously, I've played a brick, and there's nothing more boring than when the bad men are out of reach. Give him leaping as an extra on super-Strength, or else some kind of mighty ranged weapon, so you can hit those darned flying people.

 

[Shadow64]

something i used that was very effective for a tank was the Aborption power maxed to 10 ranks (i beleive i used the extra to allow absorbing of both normal attacks and energy attacks as well), then Amazing Save(Damage) also maxed to 10 ranks.

Take a 20 Con score and the toughness feat as well. That will give a total of +17 on your damage save, and with the Abosorption taking 10 points off every time you are hit you are looking at between a 15 and 20 damage save - should be easy to make with a +17. And even if you don't make the save it won't be by more then one or two, so you don't get stunned or disabled.

You might want to take the abosorption power and use it to Boost a Regeneration power as well. I didn't do that - but the thought was in my head.

For damage i went with just a 20 strength and strike at +10. So if i connected they had to make a 30 save. most (stock) villians couldn't do that.

I think i still had enough power points left over to have a decent BAB, with Weapon Foucs: Unarmed Strike and Rapid Strike.

The only way my guy took a stun hit was when he got hit by a car that the other party tank decided to hit him with during a friendly little brawl. Other then that i stayed on my feet.

 

[DanMcS]

something i used that was very effective for a tank was the Aborption power maxed to 10 ranks (i beleive i used the extra to allow absorbing of both normal attacks and energy attacks as well), then Amazing Save(Damage) also maxed to 10 ranks.

Take a 20 Con score and the toughness feat as well. That will give a total of +17 on your damage save, and with the Abosorption taking 10 points off every time you are hit you are looking at between a 15 and 20 damage save - should be easy to make with a +17. And even if you don't make the save it won't be by more then one or two, so you don't get stunned or disabled.

This is actually against the rules. You can only affect a die roll using powers up to a total of your power level. For a PL 10 guy, he could use either amazing save at 10, to increase his check by 10, or absorption at 10, to reduce the DC by 10, but not both. To both increase his check by 10 and reduce the DC by 10 (using powers), he'd have to be PL 20. That's why nobody could hurt him, he was effectively 10 PLs higher than them in avoiding damage.

It's actually easier to do damage than to make saves in MnM. For both (at PL 10), you can have a stat up to +5, and a power up to +10. For a damage save, you can additionally have the feat for a +2, 17 points of save total. For damage, there's power attack up to +5, surprise attack up to +5, point blank shot if it's a missile weapon. Ramming can add a lot, typically up to your PL (10 in this case). Crits add 5 to the damage. For a maxed-out damage and damage save, damage will come out a little ahead.

 

[Neowolf]

Lifting doubles his carrying capacity each time it's taken.

Also, I forgot to mention that this guy will have Growth +4 with the Permanent flaw, so he'll be Large rather than Medium size.

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys, keep 'em coming.

 

[Shadow64]

This is actually against the rules. You can only affect a die roll using powers up to a total of your power level.

i knew that it was to good to be true! thankfully it was a one-shot game. I am still learning the rules and i was relying on how many of the powers that stack together have notes about such things (like how protection and amazing save: damage don't stack). I will have to be more careful when i do things like this (and will have to re-check my current character as well).

Thanks.

 

[Neowolf]

Some other feat possibilities:

Durability
Immunity
Penetrating Attack
Stunning Attack
Power Attack
Takedown Attack
Attack Focus

Opinions?

 

[DanMcS]

Mmm, dunno if I'd bother with the Lifting stunt. With PL 10 super-strength and 20 strength, your light load is already 50 or 100 tons.

Durability isn't so useful if you've got protection as your main defense. It's better if you have amazing save-damage.

Immunities are swell, pick them up, some people even put them as extras on super strength or con, you'd end up with 10 of them at 1 point apiece.

Penetrating attack has been errattad, check greenronin.com for the MnM erratta. Basically it was broken before (allowed exceeding the PL cap), now it's no longer useful at all, just max out strike or super-strength. I'd like to see it get fixed and be useful, because I think it's kind of a nifty concept, but right now ignore it.

Attack Focus, Power Attack, and Takedown Attack are no-brainers for a brick.

Stunning attack, it depends on how he'll be fighting. Since it doesn't add any stun hits itself, it's not so useful if he ends up fighting by himself against a team. If he'll have some backup who can help take advantage of a stunned target, then it's swell. Combo it with surprise strike, he can do a power attack/stunning attack one round, then power attack/suprise strike the next if the stun worked and possibly take someone out of the fight in two rounds, especially if they had a force field that went down when they got stunned. With rapid strike and a high BAB, he might be able to do it in one round.

 

[Neowolf]

This guy is gonna be part of a larger team, built with certain team tactics in mind:

There's a Spider-Man type guy (leaping, clinging, snare) who'll mainly be Snaring the heroes to open them up for the others (this Brick and a Speedster so far). I'm also thinking of adding a Psion of some sort to the group, which should also allow for some other interesting tactics.

FYI, this group is going to be the villains for the opening chapter of Time of Crisis, as I wasn't too impressed with the Thieves' Guild.

 

[Zenon]

Penetrating attack has been errattad, check greenronin.com for the MnM erratta. Basically it was broken before (allowed exceeding the PL cap), now it's no longer useful at all, just max out strike or super-strength. I'd like to see it get fixed and be useful, because I think it's kind of a nifty concept, but right now ignore it.

Actually, the best house rule I've seen for Penetrating Attack (and the only I think I'm going to adopt) is that it converts powers like Protection, Force Field & Armor to an equivalent level of Amazing Save - DMG.

This takes powers that might normally stop an attack cold (like a mook with a +3L pistol with AP rounds[Penetrating Attack] vs Protection 10). With the house rule, the defender would still have to make a damage save but adding his Protection level to his save bonus to the max allowable by stacking.

It's simple, it's worth something to have the feat but I don't see it as "overpowered". I'll have to see how it plays out in the game.