How would you build Absolute Zero from SotM?

[xBlackWolfx]

This is a character from a card game I love called Sentinels of the Multiverse. One of the first characters the game came with was Absolute Zero, whose deck has always fascinated me.

Anyway, many of the superheroes available in the game are based off of famous superheros (Legacy is Superman, Tachyon is The Flash, etc...). Absolute Zero seems to be inspired by Mr. Freeze, though he's not quite a copy of him, and not just in the fact that Absolute Zero is a hero.

His deck is a rather complicated combo deck. But the gist of it is that he specializes in two different kinds of damage: fire and cold. The game has multiple damage types. They all function the same, but different characters (both heroes and villains) may have immunity to certain types, and some cards may also boost the damage from certain types of damage.

Absolute Zero's deck of course does more than hit for cold and fire damage. His deck revolves around two equipment cards: one causes him to be healed when he's hit with cold damage, and the other causes his suit to 'overcompensate' as I see it and make him deal cold damage when he's hit with fire damage. Of course, his deck has ways to deal himself damage to trigger these effects. A notable trait about his deck is that it allows damage bonuses to compile. For example, lets say he somehow has +1 to all damage (there's multiple ways to get that), if he hits himself with his main power, it deals 1 fire damage by default. This gets increased to 2, so then he deals 2 cold damage, which is boosted by 1 too, making him deal 3 damage. Of course, he can receive multiple bonuses that stack, and has equipment that boosts his cold damage, this can all add up to a lot of damage. One of his main damaging equipment cards deals cold damage to three different targets, then deals fire damage to himself equal to how much cold damage he dealt. Obviously, this can add up to quite a lot, possibly even enough to KO him.

TL: DR

So in short, Absolute Zero has several effects:

He can deal cold damage, to either his enemies or himself.
If he takes cold damage, he heals instead. He can intentionally use this to heal himself.
He can deal fire damage, to either his enemies or himself.
If he takes fire damage, he can deal cold damage to one target.
By exploiting his suit's overcompensation, he can actually deal more damage to his enemies by first damaging himself.

My main problem is the book makes no mention of damage types, which is core to how Absolute Zero works. Yeah, you can make him immune to cold, and susceptible to fire, but I don't know if you can have one special attack that can deal either damage, or if you have to take it twice if you want to deal 2 different damage types. Also, the book makes no mention of powers that damage you when you use them. This is a limitation that really can't be mimicked. Yes, you can link a power with special attack (limitation: personal), but that actually makes the power cost more. I was thinking something a long the lines of the 'single use' limitation, except you take damage every time you use the power. Or maybe he could have the boost: mind power with a limitation that he must damage himself when he uses it.

And I haven't bought any of the awesome powers yet (yeah, I really need to badly, but sadly I also collect transformers so that kinda cuts into my spare cash every payday). I know there's some power in there called 'absorption', but I have no idea how it works since of course I don't own that book. Would it let Absolute Zero heal himself or boost his own damage depending on what kind of damage he's hit with?

edit: Oh yeah, and he also has some limited ability to control the weather. Some cards mention him causing hail storms and such. Of course, that can easily be done with X mastery: cold weather.

[BASHMAN]

So the Variable Enhancement mentions you can use it to change damage types. In Awesome Powers 6, Variable was updated so that you can put more than 1 point into it. These extra points are basically "reserved" to pump into range, area, etc. But changing the damage type was also clarified to cost 1 point. So if You have Variable 1 on Special Attack 4, and the default attack is a Fire Punch for +4DM, you could have a Fire Blast (Med. Cone +2DM), or you could do Ice Punch (+3DM) or Ice Blast (Med. Cone, +1DM).

Yes, Absorption works as you suspect; you gain the benefits of Immunity to X and also get healed from it. Alternative versions allow you to just get stronger from X. So if he has Heat Absorption, he would be Immune to Heat and and also get healed by it (but it isn't a 1:1 healing; it is a small amount of healing).

So if he was hurt, he could walk through flames to be healed. If he has a fire blast, He could sit there and burn himself to heal as well (note that it says "using this power on purpose uses an Action). So if he sits there burning himself to heal, that takes up his turn. But if someone shoots him with a fire blast, he heals from it and it doesn't use his panel up.

Absorption is from AP#1.

Another easy thing to do is add Extra Effect to his attack power that it does +2DM of Cold damage whenever he takes Heat damage (since his last panel).

[xBlackWolfx]

Well, he doesn't get healed from fire, he still takes the damage (he even has a few ways to increase the damage he takes from fire). He just automatically gets to deal cold damage to something whenever that happens, assuming he has the right piece of equipment in play. Yes, he could choose to hit himself with the resulting cold damage, but he doesn't have to, and since he still technically took damage from the fire, the net gain from the heal isn't really much. The math works more in your favor if you just hit yourself with cold damage outright.

For instance, his main power can deal either 1 cold damage or 1 fire damage to himself. Let's say he had +1 damage. If he hit himself with fire, that would be 2 damage, and then the resulting cold would be 3, healing him for a net gain of 1 hp. But if he just hit himself with cold, that would be improved to 2 and thus he would be healed 2 points.

And honestly, he normally doesn't heal for that much anyway, though his healing is the most potent of any character's anyway (healing isn't exactly common in the game, most characters can't heal at all, and the few that do can only heal for maybe 1 or 2 points).

Regardless, that does help solve my problem. I really need to get to buying those awesome powers books...

Thanks for the help. I think I need to look into getting awesome powers 1. For some reason, I tend to make a lot of elemental characters.

[Sijo]

The Awesome Powers books are pretty cheap and quite worth it depending on what you're looking for, #1 in your case covers Elemental Powers and has Absorption (as well as Energy Battery, a variant of Absorption that turns damage into points for use in other abilities.)

[BASHMAN]

Oh, in that case you just take Damage Aura with a Limitation that it only works when he takes fire damage.

There is also an some Enhancements called "Automatic" and "Secondary Effect" you might be interested in.

[Sijo]

If you check my BASH Traits Rearranged thread, you'll find lists of all the system's (current) abilities and in which books they can be found.

[xBlackWolfx]

I just bought all the awesome powers books. I wasn't expecting them to be dozens of pages long, it'll probably take me a while to read through all of them.

But for right now, my attention may be focused elsewhere. I've been trying to get published since I was in middle school, but I have never succeeded. Now, I need the money badly, but I just can't seem to keep on task. Supposedly that's what happens when you focus on too many projects at once. So I'll be abandoning a few things to focus on writing something that is publishable. I may also neglect this, I don't know. Of course, not like I'm getting anywhere anyway since I can't find someone to play with. Honestly I'm more just collecting these books than anything else.

[MrJupiter]

I just bought all the awesome powers books. I wasn't expecting them to be dozens of pages long, it'll probably take me a while to read through all of them.

But for right now, my attention may be focused elsewhere. I've been trying to get published since I was in middle school, but I have never succeeded. Now, I need the money badly, but I just can't seem to keep on task. Supposedly that's what happens when you focus on too many projects at once. So I'll be abandoning a few things to focus on writing something that is publishable. I may also neglect this, I don't know. Of course, not like I'm getting anywhere anyway since I can't find someone to play with. Honestly I'm more just collecting these books than anything else.

Hey, good luck with your writing efforts, xBlackWolfx. I hate the drudgery of writing but would love to have it as an outlet for my imagination. Also, don't feel too bad about the lack of gaming prospects. I'm sure that there are a lot of other role-players in areas that are rife with potential, and willing, gamers but who find it nearly impossible to work out agreeable schedules. I myself have had BASH for years, yet have only managed to run two games with it so far (I'm so ashamed...)!

[Sijo]

Hey, I would be happy to join an online game! Unfortunately I don't have a camera, but I do have a mic and can install Skype if needed, so, as long as you don't mind not seeing my ugly mug , I think we could manage.

[xBlackWolfx]

I don't have a webcam either, but I do have a head set which I bought more than a year ago for a Spanish class.

I guess I wouldn't mind playing a game online, assuming that was possible.

[xBlackWolfx]

Been thinking about building absolute zero.

One of his cards, which I've been using a lot lately, has a 'power' that I can't figure out how to build. The card simply causes end-of-turn effects to occur at the beginning of the villain's turn rather than at the end.

I imagine a weaken: agility effect will do this, but I don't know if it can affect a 'field' as this card does (the card is called 'sub-zero atmosphere, and shows absolute zero walking through an area completely covered in snow, with more snow falling). This may not represent a power he has to be honest, though considering he has a card that shows him spraying a huge area with cold, I don't think it would really be out of the question. Of course, not all the cards are meant to represent actual powers the characters use in combat. One of absolute zero's cards is actually his cryochamber, which increases cold damage done to him and reduces fire. He may destroy the card to deal a large amount of fire damage to himself (probably represents him exiting his cryochamber, which is actually what the art depicts).

I guess I could just link the weaken: agility to his special attack (which he obviously has), but none of his damage cards have any sort of secondary effect, even though realistically it would make sense.

Another issue is that like Mr. Freeze, he needs his suit to survive, he can't survive temperatures higher than freezing. Of course, he has no inherent powers, but at the same time he's not normal in that he really can only safely exit his suit inside his cryochamber. If he doesn't have his suit, he's really nothing. I don't know how to incorporate that of it its even necessary. I guess maybe I could give him a weakness to being hacked or something. I guess someone could theoretically try to tamper with the suit and change the temperature settings, or just turn it off completely.

[Sijo]

If it were up to me, I'd simulate the "freezing effect" by using Slow with Area and Lethargic enhancements (the latter reduces Priority Rolls of targets by half, it's in Awesome Powers #1.)

As for his weakness, I'd describe as Vulnerability to room temperatures or higher eg. not wearing his special suit.

[BASHMAN]

It sounds to me like he has a DEVASTATING WEAKNESS. The Suit basically acts as a Power Source to him; without it he cannot use his powers (other than his cold immunity probably). Also without it, he begins taking damage (like x3 damage per turn) at temps above 0 degrees.

[xBlackWolfx]

Okay, here's my attempt to build him, but I've run into a few problems. One is I don't know what advantages to give him, and two I don't know what skills to give him either. The character description isn't all that well detailed. It mentions that he's a college graduate, and he tried to get his dream job before tragedy struck, but it makes no mention what this job was or even what he specialized in. Essentially, his fiancee died in a car accident after she walked out on him when they got into an argument. He never showed up to the interview for his dream job, he just stayed at home getting drunk until his money ran out at which point he took a job as a janitor at some cryogenics lab or something. It gives no hint as to what his skill set is.

Anyway, here's what I have so far, I'm happy with the powers, even if they are a bit elaborate:

Absolute Zero

34 points (8 stats 30 powers, -4 weakness)

B2 A1 M1

soak x5 defense x1 mental defense x1

Powers:

Absorption: cold, 4 points

Armor 3, 3 points

Boost 3: mind, special attack, limitation: only when exposed to intense heat, 3 points

Cold multi-power, 10 points

Special attack 5, enhancement: variable 1, limitation: backlash, linked with weaken agility 3, 7 points

Coolant Blast: x2 attack x5 DM

Frost-bound Drain: x3 attack, x3 DM, close range

Thermal Shockwave, x3 DM, medium burst

Ice wall: force-field 5, enhancement: variable, limitation: backlash, 5 points

Freeze: Immobilization 5, enhancement: variable, limitation: backlash, 5 points

Sub-zero Atmosphere: Damage Field 5, x1 DM, huge area, linked with: slow, huge area, lethargic, limitation: backlash, 5 points

Weakness:

Devastating weakness: Absolute Zero can only survive in temperatures below freezing. Without his suit, his brawn is reduced to 1 and he loses all his powers (besides his absorption, obviously), and takes x3 damage every turn.

Mental Malfunction: Cynical and cold.

Skills:

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Duty: US government, Freak

[Sijo]

Looks solid to me!

As for skills, from what you describe they don't seem too important to the character. Considering he's a college graduate he must have something; how about Science/Physics? It fits his theme and would explain his interest in the lab even if he was there just as a janitor. Btw if you don't want him to have a Physical Skill just give him the Unskilled Disadvantage.