Taliesin's 3E Builds: Moonstone, Binary, Rulk, Wasp, Shang

[Taliesin]

Didnt DareDevil sometimes used his Billy Clubs to temporarily "paralyse" adversaries by hitting precisely on their nerve centers? From where would you stunt this kind of ability?

Great write up in general.

I collected DD for years. He did that paralyze bit, and trips etc but under the iconic 3e way, I'd say they were power stunts. A lot of that he did to minion types too so a GM could let him paralyze a minion for questioning instead of KOing him as "flavor". IMHO

Yeah, once you insert the qualifier, "sometimes," then you're probably looking more at power stunt or "crit AE" rather than base effect.

Love the Marvel write-ups.

Thanks.

[Flying Cobra]

I thought about this a bit, and originally I did have Astral Form as a standalone power, but here's the idea:

Astral Form used as Remote Sensing is Dynamic--the telepath's powers get weaker with distance. However, it also has the Dimensional Extra to enter the astral plane, where the telepath can be reasonably close by and while not at full strength, still retain a significant portion of his psionic ability.

Or are you saying Astral Form should preclude use of any other psionic power? I don't think this is the case at least with Marvel's psis.

Actually, thinking back on Prof. X and Amhal Farouk's battle, you definitely have a point.

Seeing your write-ups and AdvocateJack's power creations on rpg.net, I am REALLY looking forward to Heroes and Villains.

[Jabroniville]

just my $.02, but Astral Form strikes me as one of those effects that would not be dynamic.

Also, maybe the Complication: Dies a lot. Like, A LOT.

Nah, that's just an unfortunate side-effect of Jean being the Poster Child for "characters who die, then come back."

Technically, Jean has only died ONCE. Un-technically, twice. She's returned once. Many characters have matched her, I think, especially if you count the "I wasn't REALLY dead" crowd. Hell, the entire X-Men 'died' that one time in Dallas, if only for a little bit- that means that Psylocke and Colossus both equal her. It's just that her death was done SO well, and her return SO poorly, that fans have stuck the label on her ever since.

[Sacremas]

I think Cyclops deserves a better Will defense than he's got, even with the recent incident of him easily beating the Void sliver which Emma practically didn't have a chance with, as he said himself that when you spend most of your life dating the world's most powerful telepaths you learn to build up some pretty strong mental defenses.

Your Thor build is great (and will be better with that variable descriptor feat) but I think he deserves maxed out defenses for his PL, either 15 Fort and Will or 14 Fort and 16 will. I'll point out instances like Avengers #138 where he's shown to have a better mental defense than Moondragon, or Infinity Watch #21 where again he beats Moondragon, this time fueled by the Goddess, and then just keeps making a chump out of Moondragon in Thor #469 where he ignores her mental blasts while she's using the Mind Gem (at which time she is officially the strongest telepath in the MU). Of course his Fortitude defense should be pretty massive as well from various stunts he's pulled (ignoring walking into lava in Avengers #5, or even standing in the center of the sun while confronting Atum in Thor Annual #14, while for non-energy attacks like the Hulk he's resisted being phased into the ground by Shadowcat, specifically in Thor #428) so it may be that both defenses are equally high.

Also while Doom has good mental defenses currently, if you do up his PL you might want to boost his Will by 2 more to max it out, I'm thinking specifically due to feats like being able to activate his trump device while being peeled apart by the Beyonder in Secret Wars, or of course punking the Purple Man in Emperor Doom, or rejecting the Soulsword's Prometheum Armor through sheer force of will in Excalibur #39. While on Doom, when you increase his figthing skills you might want to up his Strength as well, increasing his base strength to 2 (same as Lex Luthor, when seen out of armor he is generally pictured to be in great shape after all, even beyond the general comic book musculature), and increase his enhanced strength from his armor, maybe as much as 2 points below what you put the Thing's strength at. He doesn't have many Strength feats over the years, but one of them include crushing a massive diamond to dust in Amazing Spider-Man #350, and when he do use his strength rather than blasts it's generally more than enough for the task at hand. Oh, and he needs an energy aura for when the Thing tries to grab him, although it's to note that his energy aura doesn't seem to be of the sustained sort, it's just an instant surge of electricity that he sends through his armor's outer layer to discourage close combat, while just being punched by the Thing normally doesn't activate it unless he's prepared it.

(Would you believe I'm actually more of a DC fan than Marvel? Needless to say I got plenty of gripes with the Hero's handbook stats as well, too bad we can't complain about those in quite the same way and expect changes. )

[Taliesin]

I think Cyclops deserves a better Will defense than he's got, even with the recent incident of him easily beating the Void sliver which Emma practically didn't have a chance with, as he said himself that when you spend most of your life dating the world's most powerful telepaths you learn to build up some pretty strong mental defenses.

Your Thor build is great (and will be better with that variable descriptor feat) but I think he deserves maxed out defenses for his PL, either 15 Fort and Will or 14 Fort and 16 will. I'll point out instances like Avengers #138 where he's shown to have a better mental defense than Moondragon, or Infinity Watch #21 where again he beats Moondragon, this time fueled by the Goddess, and then just keeps making a chump out of Moondragon in Thor #469 where he ignores her mental blasts while she's using the Mind Gem (at which time she is officially the strongest telepath in the MU). Of course his Fortitude defense should be pretty massive as well from various stunts he's pulled (ignoring walking into lava in Avengers #5, or even standing in the center of the sun while confronting Atum in Thor Annual #14, while for non-energy attacks like the Hulk he's resisted being phased into the ground by Shadowcat, specifically in Thor #428) so it may be that both defenses are equally high.

Also while Doom has good mental defenses currently, if you do up his PL you might want to boost his Will by 2 more to max it out, I'm thinking specifically due to feats like being able to activate his trump device while being peeled apart by the Beyonder in Secret Wars, or of course punking the Purple Man in Emperor Doom, or rejecting the Soulsword's Prometheum Armor through sheer force of will in Excalibur #39.

I'm fine with the current saves where they're at, for the most part. They're consistent with the builds from HH.

While on Doom, when you increase his figthing skills you might want to up his Strength as well, increasing his base strength to 2 (same as Lex Luthor, when seen out of armor he is generally pictured to be in great shape after all, even beyond the general comic book musculature), and increase his enhanced strength from his armor, maybe as much as 2 points below what you put the Thing's strength at. He doesn't have many Strength feats over the years, but one of them include crushing a massive diamond to dust in Amazing Spider-Man #350, and when he do use his strength rather than blasts it's generally more than enough for the task at hand.

Depending on the Toughness of a diamond...Str 6 is enough to crush (three degrees of success) a Toughness 10 object if the object rolls a 1.

Doom is certainly capable of upgrading his armor like Stark but he specifically doesn't make it as powerful as he could.

Oh, and he needs an energy aura for when the Thing tries to grab him, although it's to note that his energy aura doesn't seem to be of the sustained sort, it's just an instant surge of electricity that he sends through his armor's outer layer to discourage close combat, while just being punched by the Thing normally doesn't activate it unless he's prepared it.

It's not an Aura, just a Readied Blast. Otherwise, a power stunt. Not going to include everything that was done a few times. Note even Superman's super-breath is a power stunt.

(Would you believe I'm actually more of a DC fan than Marvel? Needless to say I got plenty of gripes with the Hero's handbook stats as well, too bad we can't complain about those in quite the same way and expect changes. )

Well, do note that I'm constructing these builds to be directly usable with those from the HH. They're more streamlined than my 2E builds and they'll use the HH builds as benchmarks and comparators, so that may be the basis of some of your gripes.

[Taliesin]

Professor X
PL14

Abilities
Strength 0, Stamina 2, Agility 1, Dexterity 3, Fighting 3, Intellect 6, Awareness 10, Presence 6

Powers
Psionic Powers: Array (48 points)

○ Telepathy: Mental Communication 4; Comprehend Languages 2 (speak any, understand all); Mind Reading 14 • 49 points
○ Astral Form: Remote Sensing 15 (visual, auditory, mental), Dimensional (astral plane), Limited: physical body is defenseless, Subtle • 2 points
○ Mental Blast: Perception Ranged Damage 12, Alternate Resistance (Will) • 2 points
○ Mind Alteration: Perception Ranged Cumulative Affliction 12 (Resisted by Will; Dazed, Stunned, Transformed) • 2 points
○ Mind Control: Perception Ranged Cumulative Affliction 12 (Resisted by Will; Dazed, Compelled, Controlled) • 2 points
○ Telepathic Illusion: Illusion 9 (all senses), Resistible by Will, Selective • 2 points

Psychic Senses: Senses 7 (Mental Awareness, Ranged and Radius Detect Life, Ranged and Radius Detect Mutants) • 7 points

Equipment
Headquarters: Xavier Institute for Higher Learning • 24 points

Huge; Tou 10, Features: Combat Simulator 2 (realistic illusions), Communications, Computer, Defense System, Fire Prevention System, Garage, Grounds, Gym, Hangar, Infirmary, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Power System, Secret, Security System, Workshop, Cerebro/Cerebra (Remote Sensing 22 (mental))

Vehicle: Wheelchair • 1 point

Medium; Str 0, Spd 1, Def 10, Tou 5

Vehicle: X-Jet • 65 points

Colossal; Str 16, Spd 10 (Flight), Def 2, Tou 13, Features: Navigation System, Air-to-Air Missiles (Ranged Damage 11, Burst Area 8, Homing 6), Cloaking Device (Concealment 2 (radio))

Advantages
Assessment, Benefit 5 (billionaire), Equipment 18, Inspire, Languages 4 (Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Shi’ar; base: English), Leadership, Skill Mastery (Insight), Trance, Ultimate Effort (Mind Reading checks)

Skills
Expertise: Behavioral Sciences 8 (+14), Expertise: Genetics 16 (+22), Expertise: Military 4 (+10), Insight 14 (+24), Perception 6 (+16), Persuasion 12 (+18), Technology 10 (+16), Treatment 8 (+14), Vehicles 4 (+7)

Offense
Initiative +0
Mental Blast, Perception Ranged, Damage 12, Resisted by Will (DC 27)
Mind Alteration, Perception Ranged, Affliction 12, Resisted by Will (DC 22)
Mind Control, Perception Ranged, Affliction 12, Resisted by Will (DC 22)
Telepathic Illusion, Perception Ranged, Illusion 9, Resisted by Will (DC 19)
Unarmed +4, Close, Damage 0

Defense
Dodge 6, Parry 6
Toughness 2, Fortitude 6, Will 18

Power Points
Abilities 62 + Powers 66 + Advantages 33 + Skills 41 + Defenses 20 = Total 222

Complications
Disability: Paraplegic (sometimes).
Obsession: The dream of coexistence between humans and mutants.
Rivalry: Magneto.

Real Name: Charles Xavier

Design Notes:

Telepathic powers probably see the most cost alteration with 3E. Notice that Mind Control is now 4 points per rank, or 3 if non-Cumulative. Thus, only Mind Reading is really at PL here, even though all the Perception ranged effects are probably more effective than their rank would otherwise indicate.

Professor X also pays for the vehicle and headquarters used by the X-Men.

Update 4/5/2011: Xavier is now PL14 as all of his mental powers are reduced one rank for benchmark purposes. There are just too many telepaths at or above his level that I needed a little extra range for resolution. The original PL15 I assigned was ported straight over from my 2E build, and the PL range of the official 3E builds appears a bit contracted compared to the PLs I assigned to my builds in 2E.

[UnkindMirror]

Telepathy: Mind Reading 15, Linked to Area Mental Communication 4, Dynamic • 51 points

Should that perhaps be Selective Area Mental Communication? Xavier isn't a "screamer", after all.

[Sacremas]

Remote Sensing 22? Wow... weren't you keeping everything to a soft cap of 20?

EDIT: Other than that Xavier looks good to me, nice build and a good top level for other Telepaths (other than Nate Gray, did you catch his appearance in Dark X-Men?) to be compared to.

[Sacremas]

I'm fine with the current saves where they're at, for the most part. They're consistent with the builds from HH.

In that case note that Superman has Fortitude and Will 15, and while Supes trums Thor in terms of sheer strength any day I don't think Thor's defenses should be less in any way, especially considering that Thor actually on a regular basis faces more powerful opponents than Superman (and note my statement that I'm a bigger DC fan, I can pull up pages worth of comparisons), especially when you consider the DC Universe's relative lack of telepaths and the like (Milton Fine Brainiac is one of the only I can think of).

[Raws]

• Mind Alteration: Perception Ranged Affliction 12 (Resisted by Will; Dazed, Stunned, Transformed), Concentration, Dynamic • 2 points

Woudn't this power also be cummulative?

Also... Xavier has in many times (I would dare to say "consistently" ) exercised his powers on multiple subjects at the same time (like when he paralysed everyone in a mall and after in the presidents gabinet at the white-house, or when he almost killed every mutant, and than every human, in the world in the X-movies, but also with similar "feats" in the comics).

Would that be just some sort of stunt or wouldn't some "selective area attacks" be in order in his array?

Also, as the "most powerfull telepath in the world", despite your justification in the design journal, I still fell that Xavier is underpowered in his array...

Maybe changing the base power to some of the more powerfull (and costly) effects, giving more room/space to evolve them to PL...

I also noted that Xavier is about 35/70 points below other "PL15 Big Guns" of both DC and Marvel (in the HH and in your builds), and under the PL recomendation for his PL, witch seems to me rather odd considering the kind of feats Xavier has done in the past and his position in that universe...

Just my oppinion, ofcourse.

[Raws]

I'm fine with the current saves where they're at, for the most part. They're consistent with the builds from HH.

In that case note that Superman has Fortitude and Will 15, and while Supes trums Thor in terms of sheer strength any day I don't think Thor's defenses should be less in any way, especially considering that Thor actually on a regular basis faces more powerful opponents than Superman (and note my statement that I'm a bigger DC fan, I can pull up pages worth of comparisons), especially when you consider the DC Universe's relative lack of telepaths and the like (Milton Fine Brainiac is one of the only I can think of).

On the other hand, parry and dodge are against Supes (and under PL for him, what doesnt happen to Thor's parry)... As Taliesin noted before, he is making compatible builds with the ones in the HH.

I would say his Thor build would win over the Supes in the HH most of the times... (bigger damage - and full damage at ranged distance - better dodge/parry relationship wih toughness...) and is at least "compatible" with that one.

[Taliesin]

Remote Sensing 22? Wow... weren't you keeping everything to a soft cap of 20?

EDIT: Other than that Xavier looks good to me, nice build and a good top level for other Telepaths (other than Nate Gray, did you catch his appearance in Dark X-Men?) to be compared to.

Soft cap of 20 for resistible effects. Remote Sensing 22 is needed for Cerebro to have a worldwide range.

[Taliesin]

I'm fine with the current saves where they're at, for the most part. They're consistent with the builds from HH.

In that case note that Superman has Fortitude and Will 15, and while Supes trums Thor in terms of sheer strength any day I don't think Thor's defenses should be less in any way, especially considering that Thor actually on a regular basis faces more powerful opponents than Superman (and note my statement that I'm a bigger DC fan, I can pull up pages worth of comparisons), especially when you consider the DC Universe's relative lack of telepaths and the like (Milton Fine Brainiac is one of the only I can think of).

On the other hand, parry and dodge are against Supes (and under PL for him, what doesnt happen to Thor's parry)... As Taliesin noted before, he is making compatible builds with the ones in the HH.

I would say his Thor build would win over the Supes in the HH most of the times... (bigger damage - and full damage at ranged distance - better dodge/parry relationship wih toughness...) and is at least "compatible" with that one.

Yeah, note that Supes doesn't totally hit his caps defensively, either! PL14 defense/Toughness. I think of Supes as having very slightly higher Fort and Will.

[Taliesin]

• Mind Alteration: Perception Ranged Affliction 12 (Resisted by Will; Dazed, Stunned, Transformed), Concentration, Dynamic • 2 points

Woudn't this power also be cummulative?

Also... Xavier has in many times (I would dare to say "consistently" ) exercised his powers on multiple subjects at the same time (like when he paralysed everyone in a mall and after in the presidents gabinet at the white-house, or when he almost killed every mutant, and than every human, in the world in the X-movies, but also with similar "feats" in the comics).

Would that be just some sort of stunt or wouldn't some "selective area attacks" be in order in his array?

Also, as the "most powerfull telepath in the world", despite your justification in the design journal, I still fell that Xavier is underpowered in his array...

Maybe changing the base power to some of the more powerfull (and costly) effects, giving more room/space to evolve them to PL...

A 50 point array is already very costly. In 2E, that would have been enough for Mind Control 25. In 3E, it's still extremely powerful, and I'm fine with rank 12 Perception effects.

I also noted that Xavier is about 35/70 points below other "PL15 Big Guns" of both DC and Marvel (in the HH and in your builds), and under the PL recomendation for his PL, witch seems to me rather odd considering the kind of feats Xavier has done in the past and his position in that universe...

Just my oppinion, ofcourse.

Xavier doesn't need to be that expensive. He's got one schtick, whereas those big guns of DC have multiple. Compare to Jean Grey, who has two arrays and is a bit more costly than her PL would normally justify.

[Speed Monkey]

Still trying to figure out Affliction in replacing Snare. So on your Spider-man build how does it work? The opponent has to make a Dodge save to avoid being snared. Got that part. But in the 3e rules it says the user can then resist using FORT or WILL. Is that the case with Spider-man's webs, or is there a substitute to make the resist be based off STR? Didn't see any reference for that in your build.