Basic Action Super Heroes!

Hello, I know I only post once in a blue moon (mostly because I have yet to find someone to play this game with).

Well, I've been thinking about it again, but for different reasons. I have been trying to write a fantasy book, but keep getting hit with writer's block and well, I just realized that I was trying to write a book I wouldn't be interested in reading myself. A few days ago, I had an epiphany: I'm actually much more interested in superheroes than fantasy now, so I should write a superhero novel instead!

Anyway, that's been going well. I'm having a much easier time coming up with characters, I think I even have my main antagonist (now I just need a protagonist).

Anyway, I said long ago that I wanted to post a bunch of builds of my own, as in stuff that I think should've been in the book. Like, why is there a pulp-level and world-class mage character, but none for street level? I've thought about it, and well there's a couple dozen different mage characters I could make. And really, you could explain a lot of the already present templates as magic-based. But anyway.

This build is my attempt to make a world-class blaster. I wanted to see if I could up the point value of a character archetype who honestly is kind of a one-trick pony. I did pull it off though. I'm not so sure how viable this thing would actually be in a 40-point campaign considering he has a soak and defense of 1. I was making more like the kind of character I would like to see in my novel and not really thinking of how viable he would actually be in this game. Anyway, here's what I came up with (and just so we know, no, he's not going to be the main villain in my novel, honestly he may not appear at all):

Lord Zeus

40 pts (6 stats, 34 powers)

B1 A1 M1

Powers:

God-like Power
Boost Mind 3, electrical powers only, 3 pts

God of Lightning
Multipower, 9 pts:

Special Attack 5, extra effect vs metal, variable
Base 'to hit' is x1 and base DM is x4. This power can be given range or arc.
Continual Damage 4, enhancement: variable, linked with Immobilization: 4, variable
Base 'to hit' is x1 and base DM is x4. The DM may be be reduced to give this ability range.

Wreathed in Lightning
Damage Aura 3 linked with Daze, 5 pts

Repulsion Flight 5, 4 pts

Electromagnetism 5, 4 pts

Asorption, electricity, linked with Boost Mind 3, electrical powers only, 6 pts

Magnetic Deflection
Deflect 3, limitation: metal only, enhancement: extra effect vs metal, 3 pts

Advantages: Immortality
Disadvantages: Unskilled

Skills: Social Science/mythology

I know some people may use this and come up with their won backstory as to what this character is, but I think I'll reveal my idea just to give you an idea why he's called 'Lord Zeus'. Long story short, he was raised by rich parents. One day, one of them was given a life sentence after it was found out he was a supervillain. His family lost all their money in legal cases and then his mother died, which resulted in him being sent to a run-down orphanage. Of course, he was hopelessly spoiled and arrogant, which earned him a lot of enemies. Once he turned 18, he was thrown out onto the streets. He climbed to the top of a mountain, where he was struck by lightning and gained his powers, after musing what it would be like to have the powers of Zeus. He now believes that he is the kind of the gods and abuses his power to do as he pleases. The primary reason I gave him immortality is because he would probably earn the death penalty several times over with what he does.

I probably won't feature him because I think I may need to keep my book clean, since after all little kids may read this thing, even though they're not my target audience.

And I made this a generic build thread because I do plan on making more. I was thinking of making characters themed around other greek gods, most notably Apollo and Hades. I may do Ares and Aphrodite too, though I don't know what I could do with characters like Hera and Dionysus.

One of the 4th edition Champions supplement that I have used several times is one known as Alien Enemies. One of the teams in the book is some aliens known as the Pantheon I think. They are essentially a bunch of aliens entities that form symbiotic relationships with host bodies and make them superhuman. They were worshipped back in Rome as the Roman gods but then left their host bodies to run around the universe again.

Looking more closely at my build, its a mess. Why does his multipower cost 9? The special attack costs 6, and so does the linked power. I think he had a third power in there that I later removed and then forgot to update the multipower cost.

Also, why should he have boost 3 linked to his adsorption when his first boost already gives him 3? Technically, he could only benefit from 1 rank of it. And changing the linked boost wouldn't alter the point value of it anyway since the adsorption power is more expensive anyway. I could reduce both boosts to 2, and give him a negating weakness that he needs to literally recharge regularly to maintain his powers.

And thinking about it, I could've also made this guy by just altering the blaster character in the book slightly. He could've possibly have stayed a 25 point character that way.

I'm really just not that great at designing characters.... I mean, I can write them, but stating out an rpg character? That, I obviously can't do. I think part of the problem is I'm trying to be too elaborate, and often try to make something weird that the system wasn't designed to handle.

And despite my ineptitude, I decided to create another character. I just noticed that it was October 1st, so I decided to actually build the Noctis character I mentioned in another thread.

Here's what I came up with. Okay, he's kind of more a horror story character than a rpg villain, but eh.

Noctis, the Living Nightmare

There was once a psionist able to create vivid illusions by the name of Karl Angel who suffered from horrible night terrors. He had a recurring nightmare where a being made of pure shadow with red glowing eyes would chase him relentlessly. One night, in one of these dreams, this shadow monster finally caught him, and he woke with a start, only to see the monster floating right above his bed, in the real world. He let out a nightmarish scream that woke everyone in the neighborhood. When neighbors broke into his apartment to investigate, all they found was Karl laying dead in his own bed, his face still locked in an expression of sheer terror.

Appereance: Noctis appears as a thick, black mist in the shape of a human except it has no distinguishable legs. Its hands are over-sized with long, sharp fingers, and its only facial features are two menacing eyes that glow blood red.

41 points (14 stats, 31 powers, -4 weakness)

B0 A5 M2

Soak x0, Defense x5, Mental Defense x2

Powers:

Ethereal Body:
Ghost form 3 (always on), 2 points

Flying 5, 5 pts

Ghostly Talons:
Special attack 3, x3 DM (ghost strike), 5 points

Haunt:
Mind control, 5 points

Mimic Voice:
Illusion, audio, huge burst (15x15) (only voices of victims its killed and people its heard speak), 4 points

Shadows:
Shapeshifting (duplicates only, one form) linked with duplication 2, 4 points

Drain:
Daze linked with heal 2 (only when victim is in a state of sheer terror), 2 points

Alien Mind:
Mind shield 3, 3 points

Advantages: Frightening presence
Disadvantage: Freak

Devastating damaging weakness: light

Shadow:

B1 A2 M1

Resistance: light

Damaging weakness: light

Advantage: Non-sentience

See the paragraph on shadows for more information.

Tactics:

Summary:

Noctis is a hunter with an emphasis on deception. It must feed on the fears of human beings to survive. Prolonged exposure to its drain power will kill the victim eventually.

Detailed:

Noctis is permanently intangible. This nature is from the substance (for lack of a better term) that its made from and cannot be nullified. Only light can harm Noctis. Since most energy-based attacks also emit some amount of light, they will deal full damage to Noctis, but Noctis will not receive double damage from an attack unless it is composed primarily of photons (such as a laser or a beam from a character with light-based powers).
However, more mundane sources of light can be used to harm Noctis. A simple flash-light, for example, will deal x1 damage to it. The damage Noctis receives should be based on the luminosity of the light source, with a cheap flash-light being x1 DM and broad daylight being a x10 DM. If Noctis is hit by an attack with a x4 DM or higher, it will release a horrifying scream and run away as fast as possible. It will then be much more wary of the heroes, but want to seek revenge on the one that damaged it. Light sources that only deal x1-3 DM will only cause Noctis to sizzle and back away. Being exposed to broad daylight however will cause Noctis to release a bloodcurdling scream as it quickly dissipates. It will not retreat unless there's an area of pitch blackness nearby. Thus if caught on the surface, it'll likely just stand there as it dies.
Because even starlight can harm Noctis, it remains virtually confined to the pitch-black of the sewers. Noctis' first victims consisted of homeless people camping in alcoves in the sewers. Some homeless people who witnessed Noctis kill someone and got away with their lives may be able to provide some information about it. Most however will only have heard rumors, not all of which may be accurate concerning Noctis' nature.
Its shadows appear virtually human, though with pale skin. They'll normally be found among the local goth scene where they can more easily blend in. They will try to befriend some of the younger goths and try to lead them down into the sewers where Noctis can feed on them without risking exposing itself to light. These shadows of course lack Noctis' weakness to light, though higher levels will still damage them (treat all light sources as dealing having a multiplier penalty of 3 concerning their damage). The shadow will die if hit with light-based damage with a multiplier (after the multiplier penalty) of x4 or more. Any less will only cause them to express pain. They may claim to be one of the undead (such as a vampire) to hide their true nature, and also try to draw sympathy from the heroes to try and keep itself from being exposed to light again. The shadows are non-sentient, so any attempt to read their minds will automatically fail. A 20 occultism check will allow someone to know that something is off about them, but won't be able to determine their true nature.
If/when the heroes go into the sewers, it'll mimic the voice of its most recent victims to try and lure them away from the exits. It'll try to separate them so it can pick them off more easily. Since sound tends to echo around the tunnels underground, it should have no problem confusing them at a junction. It may try to intimidate or threaten some of its victims. When it does so, it'll talk in a deep, menacing voice.
Because a victim must be in a state of terror first, this means that a hero with the 'fearless' advantage is obviously immune to Noctis' drain power. If it fails to frighten a victim because of this, it will try to haunt them, or if that fails, kill them.
If chasing a running victim, it'll always match their speed (assuming its not beyond its top speed) throughout the entire chase, only closing in once the victim collapses from exhaustion. With its victim now helpless, it will then try to drain them. After three pages, the victim will be practically a vegetable if saved, only recovering after a few days stay in the hospital. If five pages have elapsed, the victim will die.
When haunting a victim it'll be as resistant to light as one of its shadows. Being hit with light that would deal at least x4 DM to Noctis while inside the victim's body will expel it. While haunting, it'll interact with the other victims and try to get alone with one of them. It'll prioritize anyone who has dealt light-based damage to it out of vengeance. If it succeeds in isolating someone this way, it'll try to murder them with its host's body. Regardless of whether it wins or loses, that's one less person for it to deal with.
If it can, it'll try to inspire paranoia amongst the group to heighten their fear.
While being drained, the victim will feel a particularly intense feeling of fear.
It does not need sleep or any other sustenance other than fear thus it will not stop until either it runs out of victims, or it is destroyed.

You come up with good ideas. Try starting with some simpler characters and work your way up. Shame you can't get anyone to play with you. If you lived here in South Florida, you would be welcome at my house.

It's hard to find people willing to play in a superhero game much less run one.

I thought I'd take the liberty of writing Noctis up in the new BASH! Creator character design website that I just launched:

http://www.bashcreator.net/#/load/vp5c

Interesting design - the Shapeshifting+Duplicates combo to create Shadow servants is novel. If I was your GM, I might be a bit uncertain about granting a special attack that will work when Noctis is in Ghost Form (especially when it also has Mental Defence 8!) But definitely a creepy concept.

DevastatingWeakness wrote:If I was your GM, I might be a bit uncertain about granting a special attack that will work when Noctis is in Ghost Form (especially when it also has Mental Defence 8!) But definitely a creepy concept.

Mental defense of 8!? Oops. I thought that power only gave +1 per rank! Yeah, its been a while since I read the book. Sister still hasn't gotten enough free-time to play the game with me. She did find another job that would've given her much more free time, and more pay, and a much more tolerant boss, but her husband's parents and grandparents coerced her into not quitting her current crappy job. So yeah. I honestly doubt I'll ever get to play this game. My sister did find some people who were looking into playing D&D, not sure how they would feel about a superheroes game, and besides they seem to be getting their idea of how a tabletop game is supposed to work by watching acquisitions incorporated. Lovely.

Oh, and as for simpler characters, I did make an Aphrodite build. I actually made that before I made Noctis, but didn't really feel like posting it since the other gods are proving to be a bit of a challenge.

Anyway, here's my build for aphrodite:

Aphrodite

25 points (8 stats, 15 powers, 2 advantages)

B1 A1 M2

Indescribable Beauty
Boost Mind 3, only when using powers against males, 3 pts

Enthrall
Mind Control, extra effect vs males, 7 pts

Suggest
Multipower, 5 pts
Suggestion, extra effect vs males
Daze, extra effect vs males

Advantages: Appeal, Devoted Henchmen

Skills: Perform/acting, Deception/lying, manipulation

And yes, I know she's getting a x6 multiplier to her mind control, but considering she only has a x1 against females, and that's pretty much her only power, I don't think it would be too overpowered. And besides, she's supposed to be a villain.