Basic Action Super Heroes!

Or more accurately, magical sword. Howdy guys, I'm trying to figure out how to build a character. I'm not entirely sure how to do do what I want to do. The basic concept is a powerful magical sword that transforms its wielder into a man of great power. It gives him strength, speed, and is itself a powerful weapon. So, all of his powers come from this sword, which can be taken from you. I've got the sword itself built as a special attack with 'easily taken,' but what power or limitation or what have you would you use to show that he loses all of his powers when he loses the sword for a round or two.

On a related note, I want this fellow to be able to do more with his sword than just attack, so how would I represent him stunning foes, or crippling them. If I use Weaken or Slow, I've got to use my mind stat, which doesn't really reflect a character using a sword. Is there any way I can buy an enhancement for those powers to change the controlling stat?

Thanks guys!

You could build him with the normal disad, since that requires his powers come from intense training and/or gadgets. His stats would cap at 2 normally, but you could raise them via the sword.

As for slowing someone down, how about immobilize?

Thanks for the response, Urbwar!

How would you have an artifact like the sword raise his stats? Would you buy that as a multi-power?

Immobilize still uses Mind, right? Is there an enhancement in the errata someplace that lets you replace a power's controlling stat?

BentonGrey wrote:Thanks for the response, Urbwar!

Your welcome!

BentonGrey wrote: How would you have an artifact like the sword raise his stats? Would you buy that as a multi-power?

No, because multi-power only allows one power to be used at a time. Since you also mention a helmet, you could have the stats be in that. You can buy the extra stats via the device; it won't change the cost unless you add the gadget limitation to the powers though (and that only saves you 1 point)

BentonGrey wrote: Immobilize still uses Mind, right? Is there an enhancement in the errata someplace that lets you replace a power's controlling stat?

No, it's a combat power, and uses agility. Confusion and/or Daze use Mind.

There are no enhancements that let you replace a power's controlling stat currently

BentonGrey wrote:Or more accurately, magical sword. Howdy guys, I'm trying to figure out how to build a character. I'm not entirely sure how to do what I want to do. The basic concept is a powerful magical sword that transforms its wielder into a man of great power. It gives him strength, speed, and is itself a powerful weapon. So, all of his powers come from this sword, which can be taken from you. I've got the sword itself built as a special attack with 'easily taken,' but what power or limitation or what have you would you use to show that he loses all of his powers when he loses the sword for a round or two.

Welcome to the forum, BentonGrey. I’d start off by building the character with the Instant Change advantage: using the Normal Disadvantage to balance this. You could say that he’d need to have his sword drawn (or something) to activate the weapons powers and manifest his super-form. Then assign the stats and powers you want the character to have just like other superheroes. Give him his Brawn, Agility, Armor or whatever powers you want his super form to have. Lastly, give him the Negating Weakness (see page 4 of rulebook) and define it as something like: “After five Pages without the magic sword, this character becomes Normal and looses his powers.” This will give you a character something like Dr. Donald Blake /Thor from the early Marvel comics. With his enchanted walking stick, which would become Mjolnir when struck to the ground, he could transform into the powerful thunder god; but deprived of the magic weapon he would revert back into the lame doctor.

BentonGrey wrote:On a related note, I want this fellow to be able to do more with his sword than just attack, so how would I represent him stunning foes, or crippling them. If I use Weaken or Slow, I've got to use my mind stat, which doesn't really reflect a character using a sword. Is there any way I can buy an enhancement for those powers to change the controlling stat?

Thanks guys!

You could build the powers of the magic sword separately from the hero’s powers. Use the Boost power to enhance the Mind stat - just limit it to affecting the sword’s powers only. That way his Weaken /Slow powers have more Oomph.

Thanks guys, I think I'm beginning to understand now!

The Thor/Donald Blake archetype is more or less what I'm going for, so that sounds perfect.

Immobilize seems like it will fit my needs then. I must have misread its description.

Good idea on the weaken/slow powers Mr. Jupiter!

Alright, I think I've got good ideas for what to do now. Thanks again!

You may want to post your build and people can comment.

I have done this in the past and found it very useful as some of the guys on here know the rules inside and out.

Steve

The way I'd do it is take Normal disad, Instant Change ad, Negating Weakness (Not having the sword of power for 1 minute).

Then as long as he has the sword, he's got all his powers, etc, and if he loses it for 1 minute +, he suddenly becomes an ordinary guy with Brawn and Agility of 1-2 (most likely 1).

Thanks Bashman, as always that was very helpful.

On a different note, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding super jumping. The description says that it improves the distance you jump, but it also says that you cover 10 squares per panel in mid-air. Does that mean that the speed of super-jump, no matter how far you are jumping, is only 10 squares per panel?

By Rules as Written as they are now, yes.

However, Awesome Powers #1 will contain a revised version of Super Jump that allows you to jump even farther, and also more than 10 SQ per page (obviously, for greater point cost).

Awesome Powers... awesomely anticipated!