(OOC) Emerald City Knights

[Graybeard]

@H4H,

I adjusted the background of Horus to more closely match the information you provided. Let me know if you would like any other modifications.

 

[hero4hire]

@H4H,

I adjusted the background of Horus to more closely match the information you provided. Let me know if you would like any other modifications.

Cool. Did you get a chance to work on any of the mechanical stuff I mentioned?

 

[hero4hire]

You have only spent 29 skill points out of your 30.

Name: Daniel Blake
Super Name: VISAGE
Power Level: 10
Power Points: 150
Experience Points:

ABILITIES 28
Str 0 Agi 0 Dex 3 Fgt 1 Awe 4 Sta 1 Int 3 Pre 2

DEFENSES 18
Toughness +13
Dodge +7
Parry +7
Fort +8
Will +9

COMBAT
Initiative +4
Melee Attack
Range Attack +10, DC25

SKILLS 30 SP (15 PP)
Deception +5 (3)
Expertise (Comic Book Art) +10 (7)
Insight +9 (5)
Perception +9 (5)
Ranged Combat (Ectoplasm) +7 (7)
Technology +5 (2)

MOVEMENT
Speed 30
Flight 30mph

FEATS 7
Improved Disarm
Improved Hold
Improved Initiative
Improved Trip
Equipment 1
Taunt
Uncanny Dodge

POWERS
Ectoplasm Control, 36pp
- Move Object (Damaging, PF Precise, PF Affects Insubstantial 2) +10, 33pp
- AP Create Object (Moveable, PF Affects Insubstantial 2) +10
- AP Damage (Shapeable Area, Selective Attack, PF Affects Insubstantial 2) +10
- AP Illusion (Visual, Hearing) +10

Concealment +2 (Normal Visual, Burst Area, Attack) 6pp
- AP Concealment +4 (All Visual, Blending, PF Precise) 1pp
Protection (Sustained) +12, 12pp
Enhanced Trait (Dodge Defense) +7, 7pp
Morph (Humanoids) +2, 10pp
Flight (Platform) +4, 4pp
Movement (Safe Fall, Swinging) +2, 4pp
Remote Sensing (Tactile, Simultaneous, Noticible) +1, 1pp
Super Senses (Ranged Touch) +1, 1pp

EQUIPMENT
Smartphone
Laptop computer
Video camera (digital)

COST
Abilities [28]
Saves [18]
Skills [15]
Feats [7]
Powers [82]
Total [150]

COMPLICATIONS
Fanboy - Daniel's still a comics geek at heart, and has starstruck reactions to famous superheroes and villains.
Family - Daniel left his family behind, but they could be found with some effort and knowledge of his identity.
Secret Identity - Daniel protects his identity using his Morph power and the code name Visage.
Ghostly - Any sense capable of seeing ghosts or spirits will be able to see the thin ectoplasm lines that link Daniel to his created objects and illusions, potentially giving away their source.

Description & Background
Daniel's a typical-looking college age art student; tall and kinda thin and a bit scruffy looking, with brown hair that could use a trim and a five o' clock shadow unless he's just shaved. Since he was young, he's had the ability to generate a kind of cloud around himself...a thin white mist that moves with him. It responds to his will, thickening and becoming nearly solid or thinning to become harder to see. He can shape it as well, sculpting it into insubstantial (but otherwise real looking) images, which is one reason he came to think of the stuff as 'ectoplasm,' when, as a child, he used it to make simple 'ghost' shapes and scare other kids. For a long time, he believed that was all it COULD do, and his little games of forming images led to an interest in visual arts, drawing in particular.

As he matured, Daniel stopped playing games with his powers and in fact stopped using them for the most part. Through most of high school he didn't use them at all, focusing on his interests in arts, girls and comics instead. The power to make goofy pictures didn't seem like it compared to the mighty titans of the superhero comic pages, and he just...lost interest in it.

It was at a barbecue yard party his dad was throwing in honor of his graduation and acceptance at ECSU (Emerald City State University) visual art and design program that Daniel had another encounter with his abilities. A couple of kids were getting competitive about how high they could climb in the old tree in back of the house. No one noticed them until one had gotten way higher than he should have. When branches started cracking, he realized he was in trouble and yelled for help. Very quickly the guests gathered below, and a fire truck was called. Not quickly enough, unfortunately. A gust of wind made the kid lose his balance, and his shifting weight finally broke one of the branches he was standing on. The boy fell out of the tree, a good thirty feet or more up.

Only to be snatched out of the air by a long ribbon of glowing white light...that was coming from Daniel. He hadn't meant to, but in his horror he'd reached out and grabbed him just like he might have reached out with his arm to catch a falling ball. And just as easily. Gingerly Daniel set him down just as the fire truck arrived.

The video of the event, albeit not with his name attached, went viral. The local news buzzed for a few days. Friends and neighbors...the only ones at the party...would bring it up again whenever they visited for ages. But since Daniel was off to school only the next day, ultimately the event faded from most people's minds. After all, it wasn't as if people there had never heard of parahumans. They'd just never expected to see one in their sleepy little town.

Daniel didn't forget though, even if the long trip to Emerald City took him outside the circle where anyone would recognize him. College helped, giving him other things to concentrate on, but in the end he started practicing with his powers again, and was astonished at what he could do that he'd never known about before. Not just immaterial images, but solid things. And the 'ectoplasm' was strong. He'd never guessed how physically powerful it could be. He learned to gather it around himself...pack it tightly so that it would protect him from harm...and he could shape it too, making himself look different, or even blend into the background. He could even "fly" by using it to create a disk or block or something he could stand on, then moving it around with him on top. It seemed to him more and more that he had the ingredients not just to write and draw superheroes...but to become one...and how could he ever resist THAT?

 

[hero4hire]

I built the clubs without the inherent Device limitations. They are still objects, bur loosing them counts as a complication and not as inherit limit of the way I bought them.
So the enemies can still disarm him, but he would get a HP because of the power loss (less damage on all his attacks. If he is disarmed after capture it would be similar (HP wise) to have a super in a cage that negates his powers.
I would be much easier to just increase the damage of his attack powers, but I like the clubs on the picture.

Hope this is fine and still 'simulating' enough.

I want him to be still able to do his moves, despite a worse accuracy and damage, without the clubs.

Okay I thinks this works out well. Points balance. So the build is good.

 

[drothgery]

It was at a barbecue yard party his dad was throwing in honor of his graduation and acceptance at ECSU (Emerald City State University) visual art and design program that Daniel had another encounter with his abilities.

...

Daniel didn't forget though, even if the long trip to Emerald City took him outside the circle where anyone would recognize him. College helped, giving him other things to concentrate on, but in the end he started practicing with his powers again, and was astonished at what he could do that he'd never known about before.

Hmm. I wonder if he's in one of Dr. Roland's freshman history lectures? She's a new PhD, so she gets stuck teaching the classes the tenured faculty don't want to bother with and can't fob off on TAs...

 

[hero4hire]

Okay having that Arcane skill as a power is fine. It would mark her as something special and unique. Some sort of "Artificer Ascendant". Which of course will make her a target.

The "Batman" character is slightly problematic. Raven is the setting's Batman, he retired before she would have been able to insert himself into her background. His daughter assumed his mantle as the Raven, but being female might not be what you wanted storywise?

Foreshadow would have been a good stand in. But your investigation skill is still better then his? So learning detective skills from him seems a little wonky.

Maybe if you switched the sleight of hand and investigate bonus? I can see her having a real good sleight of hand over investigate (stage magic). Or sink points into Will? (which seems a little low for a mystic oriented character).

The mystic character can easily be Eldrich. Earth's current "Master Mage" (think Dr. Strange) he definitely would take a vested interest in anyone with a +20 magic skill to artifice.

Revising the Spellslinger here


Changes

• expanded background
• made her slightly older to account for expanded background
• reduced sleight of hand, Expertise: Magic
• increased acrobatics, deception, persuasion
• added Enhanced Trait (Expertise: Magic) power, limited to creating and analyzing magic devices
• changed Ranged Combat: arcane sharpshooter skill to Ranged Combat: pistols (which doesn't seem too broad to me, given that ranged combat: guns is an example in the book)

[sblock=background]Susan Roland was the daughter of a couple of performers in Las Vegas who never let on to anyone save their daughter that the secret to their show's success was subtle application of real magic. Subtle was important -- if you talked fast, you could convince a skilled stage magician that the trick was actually possible. And Susan was good at it -- she'd been helping her parents set up their acts since she was a child, and was naturally giften in binding spells to objects the way the senior Rolands did. She was also very bright; enough to earn a scholarship to an elite college back east, and even though she wanted nothing more than to follow in her parents' footsteps, they had encouraged her to take it.

But when Susan -- by then a college freshman -- got a call from the police telling her that her parents had been murdered, she flew home right away. The next few weeks made it clear the police were not getting anywhere solving the crime, and she decided to take matters into her own hands. She'd seen the telltales that meant a normal person had not been responsible. There were sigils that neither she nor her parents would ever draw, and some things that would have been of no value to anyone save a true spellcaster were missing. Her college was very understanding about granting her a leave of absense while she dealt with her parents' deaths, if less about giving her credit for classes she'd been unable to make the finals for.

It was easy enough to buy a gun in Nevada. The rites to enchant it to be more accurate than it should be came naturally. Without practice, the range instructor said she was good; she got better quickly. A thought to some defense led to enchanting a jacket, and another to carrying her guns and ammo where the government might frown upon the idea led her to build a little bit of an extradimensional space into the pockets. Books on investigation techniques and talking to cops combined with her knowledge of the arcane put her on the trail -- at least better than the police had been.

Perhaps fortunately, she ran into another hero before she found her parents' murderers who'd also been on the trail. [Hero X, a costumed adventurer type; maybe one of the other PCs or the setting's Batman] recognized her talent, and helped her learn to focus less on vengeance and more on justice. Without his help, she would likely never have found thier killer -- and if she had, the sorceress would not have been brought back to justice alive. They'd needed to bring in a third to do that; [Hero X]'s skills weren't up to facing the sorceress' magic directly, and neither were Susan's enchanted items. [Hero Y, a mystic type] had helped them close the circle. Both served as mentors to her in years to come.

In the 'real' world, she'd gone back to school, and finished her degree. She'd spent a semester in Europe, and the summer after it, tracking down arcane lore and talking to any real spellcasters that were willing to talk to her. She'd gone to graduate school in Freedom City, mostly to be closer to [Hero X] and refine her investigative technieques (and to deal with an annoyingly one-sided crush). But nearly a decade after she'd begun down a hero's path, she decided she really did want to get back to the life she'd intended on before her parents died, at least a little. She took an adjuct proffesor's job in Emerald City, far enough from home to avoid bad memories, and started her act there as well. In a sense she was three people - the professor Dr. Susan Roland, PhD (History), the stage magician Susan the Magnificent, and her super hero alter ego of The Spellslinger.
[/sblock]
[sblock=picture]

[/sblock]
[sblock=character sheet]
The Spellslinger
PL10
The woman in black fled across the desert, and the Spellslinger followed
Name: The Spellslinger
Player: drothgery
Alternate Identity: Susan Roland
Type of Alternate Identity: Secret
Gender: Female
Age: 31
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 135 lbs
Eyes: blue
Hair: red
Group Affiliation:
Base of Operations: Emerald City

Abilities
Strength 0, Stamina 2, Agility 5, Dexterity 5, Fighting 2, Intellect 4, Awareness 4, Presence 2

Powers
Arcane sharpshooter [whether it's the custom-made guns or the alchemical bullets she fires, the Spellslinger can find the right attack to take down just about anything]:
Magic bullets: Blast 5 [magic; multiattack; accurate 3, penetrating 5, variable descriptor 2, extended range 2, easily removeable -10]
(17 points)
Arcane jacket [both protective and providing a space to store guns and ammo that the TSA doesn't know about, her jacket is one of the Spellslinger's better creations]:
Protective wards: Protection 3 [magic; removeable], Magic pockets: Feature 1 [as per M&M2e dimensional pocket]
(3 points)
Artificer's Training [since she was a child, the Spellslinger has always been a natural at binding spells to things]:
Master Artificer: Enhanced Trait 3 [Enchance Expertise: Magic by +6; Limited: Only related to constructing and/or analyzing magical devices (-1), Permanent]
(2 points)

Equipment


Advantages
Power Attack, Defensive Roll 5, Precise Attack 2 [ranged, both], Quick Draw, Uncanny Dodge, Artificer, Languages 3 [Russian, French, German, Latin], Move-by Action

Skills
Acrobatics 8 (+13), Athletics (+0), Deception 8 (+10), Expertise: History 10 (+14), Expertise: Magic 10 (+14), Insight 10 (+14), Intimidation (+2), Investigation 10 (+14), Perception 10 (+14), Persuasion 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: pistols 4 (+9), Sleight of Hand 6 (+11), Stealth 10 (+15)

Offense
Initiative +5
Arcane Sharpshooter +15, Damage 5

Defense
Dodge 10, Parry 6
Toughness 10 (Def Roll 5), Fortitude 6, Will 9

Power Points
Abilities 48 + Powers 22 + Advantages 15 + Skills 47 + Defenses 18 = Total 150

Complications
Sometimes she does not have the right bullets on hand for her opponent, and will need to make more (in game mechanics terms, she can't use the correct descriptor to overcome defenses, or gain penetrating)
Susan Roland has a real life and real jobs as a part-time proffesor and a stage magician; she has told no one of her super-hero identity
Although with the help of [Hero X] and [Hero Y] she was able to capture her parents' killer and get her imprisoned, Susan never found the things the sorceress stole, and while the sorceress has been in prison for some time, super-villians often are difficult to keep behind bars

Design notes
Her only attack power is her enchanted guns; she uses the variable descriptor property to attack weaknesses. She's also quite capable of creating one-shot magical devices via the Artificer Advantage and her Expertise: Magic skills, either given time to prepare or by jury-rigging.

Possible scratch-built devices include
- Cloak of Flying (Flight 5) (10 points, so DC 25 to jury-rig)
- Improvised enchanted weapon [baseball bat, kitchen knife, etc] Damage 5 Accurate 5 (10 points, so DC 25 to jury-rig) -> +12 to hit, 5 dmg

[/sblock]

 

[hero4hire]

I am still considering submitting a different character. One of the reasons for this is that I am playing a "scientist" sort of character in another M&M game on these boards. Another reason is that I'm getting a sense that I might have a better chance of getting into the game as a different role. Finally, I really really like the character concept.

I will make a decision today on whether or not to change the character I am submitting.

<nods> That is fine. I think I will be making decisions soon so let me know as soon as possible.

 

[hero4hire]

Current sheet is here.

BTW, I would be interested to hear your opinion about it, nonetheless... just out of curiosity.


And, of course, what you say about the changes I made to Fusion's sheet (some explanations found here).

Bye
Thanee

Crimefighter was good. I am going to review Fusion. I have putting it off as in some ways it is like reviewing several characters in one.

 

[Thanee]

The current sheet is a lot more narrow than the one before, because it is really focused on her primary power (which, of course, isn't narrow by definition, but the variation isn't that big).

I also thought to maybe write up a list of potential powers with max. rank, that she can use via Variable, kinda like a menu to pick from and as such as a definition of her limits. Much of that is in the templates already (i.e. Speed 8 will be the fastest she can manage, or Growth 4 the biggest, very limited Flight when human-sized, better with wings, only Leaping when bigger, etc), though.

Bye
Thanee

 

[rangerjohn]

So the mechanics were good on BlackWing, what about the background?