Superheroes of The Trust OOC Thread (Accepting Alts)

[Blind Azathoth]

Ah...fair points on Confuse and Suffocate. And lots of good ideas from Shayuri. Oh, how I now wish I had simply gone with an alien who wields cosmic power! I could just have used a variation of the Energy Controller archetype. I think I got myself in a bit over my head for my first character. Still, I will try to work things out with Salix. Considering the points you've all brought up--and the difficulty I am having getting that Transform-Grow-Animate trick to work--I think I'll need to take a hammer to Salix's Powers section and start from scratch. I'll try to have something up later tonight.

 

[James Heard]

In regards to Spirit...is an inability to benefit from Healing really a drawback to someone who can regenerate even back from the dead?

Sure, but it's a rather minor one and that's why I priced it that way. If she could be healed then she could presumably be up and running pretty quickly if presented with someone who could raise the dead (for instance) with a wave of his hand, but this way she's got to wait dutifully for checks, right?

 

[Blind Azathoth]

Oh, James, I forgot to say that I also rather liked your idea. In fact--though I snipped it out of his backstory because it didn't add that much and it was already pretty long--originally, I was going to have Salix be taught the ways of human civilization by a commune of hippies. Who knows? Maybe I'll add it back in. Sounds like he could use a bit of a lighter side to him...

 

[Shayuri]

Azathoth...I was just thinking...and I've no idea what all the rules ramifications are, so it may be really hard to model (in which case nevermind ), but what if Salix was a symbiotic plant? The real Salix is a grassy patch or mossy clump. It puts roots into the host plant, injecting it with some kind of recombinant DNA changing virus that causes the new host to develop vegetable 'musculature' and integrates an analogue of a nervous system to Salix.

Salix's entire race could have the ability to modify these reconstructive retroviruses at will, in fact, so they can adapt to just about any kind of living host in time, as well as engineer new traits. The basis of their 'technology' is organic, and they're always on the lookout for more species with more interesting traits they can learn and reproduce in later hosts.

The 'good' ones limit themselves to hosts that aren't intelligent...possibly not even of animal intelligence. The 'evil' ones are interested only in host lifespan and fecundity...making human beings an excellent choice! Perhaps one reason you're interested in Earth is because you want to help protect a genetically diverse species from being conquered and exploited by the nastier members of your kind...

Mechanically, take a look at the Posession power, perhaps...amped up to Innate, Continuous, etc...limited perhaps by a long adaptation period or something. And you could have an array of powers you currently possess retroviruses to induce in your host.

I dunno exactly how it'd work, but it just struck me as being an interesting twist...

 

[Victim]

I think a better way to do the Animate-> Growth trick might just be to buy up the ranks on the Animate (possibly sacrficing Horde). Then you can just buy Growth for the buffed up plants with those points.

Hmm. After doing some rough writeups, you actually don't need too many ranks in Animate to get huge plants. You can get a Gargantuan plant with some attack focus in melee with rank 4 Animate. Granted, your defense sucks, and you'll need to swap out the Growth Con boost for protection (constructs don't have Con). Giving them some Con, Fort, and dropping the Immunity (since plants could still be affected by Fort attacks, just often different ones) still saves you points. Unless you want the plants to have lots of feats (Interpose is fun with minions), skills, or other powers, then doing them on 60-75 points each shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Shayuri]

Actually, if you want to do it that way, don't take Animate, take Summon.

Animate doesn't let you specify the final form of the animated object. Summon does.

Plus, only being able to Summon plants would make the power cheaper. And it dispenses with the thorny problem of potentially not having plants around. Just say you shoot a pod into the ground...and in seconds it erupts into a nasty plant monster!

 

[Victim]

Actually, if you want to do it that way, don't take Animate, take Summon.

Animate doesn't let you specify the final form of the animated object. Summon does.

Plus, only being able to Summon plants would make the power cheaper. And it dispenses with the thorny problem of potentially not having plants around. Just say you shoot a pod into the ground...and in seconds it erupts into a nasty plant monster!

Some types of animation clearly seem give the animated form powers not possessed by the normal one. All the points provided by the power generally have to go somewhere. Besides, the difference between the 2 powers is pretty hazy really. Animate looks pretty much like Summon+Fanatical+Ranged-Limited: need stuff.

Either way works, though. The real question is whether the plant minion power goes into the array or stays separate. If it's separate, then the other direct powers can be used while the minions supply the beatdown. If it's in the array, then if the minions are beating on people, Salix pretty much has to use his melee attack as well. When I stuck the minions in the array, my writeup pretty much had the same stuff (I upped STR and Con, but kept melee damage and toughness the same) and around 10 points to spare.

I dropped Suffocate, and changed the drugging attack to Fatigue+Area (cloud)+Poison-Full Action with Reversible. Instead of driving people crazy, it's more like a powerful sedative or tranquilizer. The area could easily be replaced with simple range, but that seemed oddly precise for some kind of air-borne substance (and largely redundant with Nauseate).

 

[DM_Matt]

In regards to Spirit...is an inability to benefit from Healing really a drawback to someone who can regenerate even back from the dead?

As for Salix, pollen clouds are fine, I think. Confuse probably isn't the best choice though, for reasons Victim explores a bit. Coughy itchy irritant pollen could be Nauseate or even Stun perhaps...both good incapacitators with no lasting damage done. I'm not as big a fan of teleporting through plants...it feels more fantasyish to me (says the player of the witch ); hard to phrase in terms of modern day 'science.' As a magical effect, that's one thing, but how else would it be explainable? Growing and animating plants could be cool if you like...infected them. Little gas-powered pods that you shoot out into trees and things that link the infected plant to your consciousness.

It's worth pointing out that Salix isn't a druid, isn't a nature-lovin' tree-huggin' guy. He's an alien plant. It'd be cool if his powers reflected that alienness. Like, maybe he blooms flowers with wide crystalline petals, that expel the clouds of pollen. Maybe the color of the flowers change with his mood? Color, odor...these are things about Salix that his kind might use to communicate that could emphasize his nonhumanity. Consider too some Extra Limbs (roots/tendrils/etc). Perhaps a limited Morph that lets him emulate terrestrial plants (in lieu of emulating human beings).

If you want to go even farther in the, "Uh, hey...that's kind of weird and disturbing" direction, consider a ranged transform from Human Into Plant Minion. You shoot a little spore pod into a person, instead of a tree. They break out in fungus and grassy growths and become shambling slaves to your will! Rah!

...probably not. Might be cool if an evil one of your kind ever finds his way to Earth though.

*wink to the GM*

I built a plant-based minor villain for the campaign rogue's gallery before Salix was even proposed.

 

[DM_Matt]

Hmm. I suppose that is a valid problem with Salix. Especially with Confuse. The random nature of the attack can actually make it very dangerous to use in typical superfight locations. Attack nearest target could easily be some civilian, and flee at top speed can make containing supers difficult. And getting flee then attack is just bad news.

If you still want mostly attack powers instead of some utility, some "gentler" ones might not be out of place.

Of course, struggling to be heroic with somewhat messy powers could be good too.

------------------------------

IIRC, there was a rule in UP that prevents Space Flight from being an AP of Flight. Of course, that seems like BS to me.

We seem to have lots of regenerators, especially of the sort that come back from death regularly. More people seem to have self rez ability than there are without it. It kind of makes me worry.

Space Flight is fine as an AP of flight in this campaign simply because it would be so rarely useful. I suppose however that it can be used to screw with satellites, safely dispose of undiffusable nuclear time bombs, hide things in highly inaccessible places, etc.

Regarding resurrection, I think that players used to DND may not fully realize that it is not easy to die in M&M.

Regarding regeneration itself, it IS very powerful, but I am not going to limit it just yet.


eanwhile, please finish up your characters. I would like to get started as soon as possible.

 

[Shayuri]

Not to mention fling all the world's nuclear arsenal into the sun.

...

*broken sob*

In other news, 95% chance of me being gone until Monday. I'll check in if I can.