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

[Taliesin]

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.

Ok... I can see your point... What about "selective area attacks" and his mental transformation being also cummulative?

I think adding in Selective Area on all of his AEs would be a bit burdensome. When he needs to do it, he can power stunt it.

I'd also rather have Concentration than Cumulative on Mental Alteration. The conditions don't lend themselves to progression, really. It's only the third degree condition that defines the power, and there aren't any appropriate intermediate conditions, so I just went with a generic daze/stun. I don't think Cumulative is necessary.

[fviv21]

I keep reading here an emphasis on hitting PL caps. In HH under "Why Is Batman PL 12" they remind us comic book characters are usually not balanced. Cyclops is the poster boy for this. His offense far exceeds his defensive aspects. I personaly think it a mistake to say "Prof X will be PL15" and then try to build him to fit that like a PC.
It seems you are building guys based on what they can do and calculating the PL at the end. If so, that explains why your builds are so good. It is also obviously how the HH builds were done.

Reed Richards could be PL10 combat-wise but have Technology +30. PL caps are for STARTING characters. Under Advancment it explains how GMs decide when and how players can exceed their starting caps. As a long-time X-men reader, I can say Cyclops easily started at PL10. The guy is no longer a starting character so your builds should, and do, reflect that.

Ignore concerns about PL max and keep doing what you're doing.

[BARON]

His offense far exceeds his defensive aspects.

cyke is one of those characters that makes you pull up your big boy pants and stop pretending that everything is supposed to be even and simple in a build. that's one of the things i love about kenson's DC builds so far.

[Taliesin]

I keep reading here an emphasis on hitting PL caps. In HH under "Why Is Batman PL 12" they remind us comic book characters are usually not balanced. Cyclops is the poster boy for this. His offense far exceeds his defensive aspects. I personaly think it a mistake to say "Prof X will be PL15" and then try to build him to fit that like a PC.
It seems you are building guys based on what they can do and calculating the PL at the end. If so, that explains why your builds are so good. It is also obviously how the HH builds were done.

Reed Richards could be PL10 combat-wise but have Technology +30. PL caps are for STARTING characters. Under Advancment it explains how GMs decide when and how players can exceed their starting caps. As a long-time X-men reader, I can say Cyclops easily started at PL10. The guy is no longer a starting character so your builds should, and do, reflect that.

Ignore concerns about PL max and keep doing what you're doing.

Thanks for the support.

My philosophy has been the same since 2E in this regard, at least. I've always determined what I think character traits and ranks should be, then assigned a PL. I might tweak things a little here and there to make the build look nicer in the end, but nothing big.

These are NPC builds, and they're probably not all optimized. I don't usually build my PCs this way. I'm just trying to represent characters faithfully from the source material.

His offense far exceeds his defensive aspects.

cyke is one of those characters that makes you pull up your big boy pants and stop pretending that everything is supposed to be even and simple in a build. that's one of the things i love about kenson's DC builds so far.

Yep, Cyke is a classic glass cannon.

[Taliesin]

Vision
PL12

Abilities
Strength 10, Stamina --, Agility 2, Dexterity 3, Fighting 8, Intellect 5, Awareness 4, Presence 1

Powers
Android Body: Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects), Protection 6 • 36 points
Density Manipulation: Array (28 points)

Mass Increase: Enhanced Strength 6; Enhanced Strength 4, Limited to Resisting Movement; Protection 10, Impervious 16; Reduced Trait 7 (Agility) • 28 ponts
• Weightless Intangibility: Flight 4 (30 MPH); Insubstantial 4, Dynamic • 2 points
• Physical Disruption: Damage 2, Affects Corporeal 12, Penetrating 12, Dynamic • 2 points

Solar Beam: Ranged Damage 10 • 20 points

Advantages
Eidetic Memory, Languages (Latin; base: English)

Skills
Perception 6 (+10), Ranged Combat: Solar Beam 8 (+11), Technology 10 (+15), Treatment 4 (+9), Vehicles 8 (+11)

Offense
Initiative +3
Physical Disruption +8, Close, Damage 12, Affects Corporeal, Penetrating
Solar Beam +11, Ranged, Damage 10
Unarmed +8, Close, Damage 10 [16]

Defense
Dodge 8, Parry 8
Toughness 16 (Impervious 16) / 10*, Fortitude Immune, Will 10
*Without Mass Increase bonus

Power Points
Abilities 56 + Powers 88 + Advantages 2 + Skills 18 + Defenses 12 = Total 176

Complications
Enemy: Ultron.
Power Loss: Vision needs solar energy to function and will shut down if his solar stores are depleted.
Relationship: A convoluted romance with Scarlet Witch.

Real Name: Victor Shade

Design Notes:

This is classic Vision, here, so no Iron Lad armor and shapechanging, just a chance to show off some density manipulation in 3E.

Here, I designed the weight adjustment of Density as Enhanced Strength, Limited to Resisting Movement. Strength by itself already does this, so in theory, one can use pure Strength to model a lot of Density. If each rank of Enhanced Strength also represents a doubling of mass, the 10 ranks of Strength basically increases Vision’s mass a thousandfold to 100 tons. I like that the various measures are roughly equivalent here.

Also, Vision loses Agility as he increases mass and Strength, and it becomes debilitated at his highest density, rendering him immobile.

Intangibility and Physical Disruption are Dynamic with each other but not with Mass Increase. He can phase out and use disruption, but increasing mass isn’t compatible with either of the other powers.

[Unknown Soldier]

Hey Tally. I'm still getting used to 3rd Edition, but I'm calculating that the skills in the IM build comes to 27pp. I normally hate to try to correct people, but I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks!

[UnkindMirror]

Hey Tally. I'm still getting used to 3rd Edition, but I'm calculating that the skills in the IM build comes to 27pp. I normally hate to try to correct people, but I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks!

3e lists Skills from Enhanced Traits as italicized in the Skills category.
So if you look at the Skills section, you'll see all, no matter the source. But Skills from Enhanced Traits are still bought as powers, so that's where their cost will be listed.

[DesertGhost]

Hey Tal,

We have a Prof X, can we get a Magneto counterpart?

[Unknown Soldier]

Hey Tally. I'm still getting used to 3rd Edition, but I'm calculating that the skills in the IM build comes to 27pp. I normally hate to try to correct people, but I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks!

3e lists Skills from Enhanced Traits as italicized in the Skills category.
So if you look at the Skills section, you'll see all, no matter the source. But Skills from Enhanced Traits are still bought as powers, so that's where their cost will be listed.

Ahh, now I see my error. Thanks!

[Sacremas]

Simple.

Thor didn't fight this armor. He fought Extremis. In addition, Thor wasn't holding back, Iron Man was trying to talk sense into his friend. They didn't have the same motivations.

(that's not to say that Thor wouldn't beat Iron Man most of the time - he should - but an M&M build shouldn't be based upon just one issue).

Ok, I didn't read anything about the armor after extremis, and I wasnt aware that it was significantly stronger... My fault... I have to catchup... But on the only issue aspect, that issue just made me look on other comparisons with the golden avenger made in the past...

Silver Surfer, Hulk and Thor (among others), seem to me to be more than one PL above Iron Man... You almost never see him going "toe to toe" with this guys and, when he does, the fights tend to be short-lived...

See that his repulsor beams are stated as equivalent as Silver Surfers Cosmic Beams... Are they SO powerfull?

But maybe that is just my wrong impressions... I need to read more about his latest armor...

Cheers!

Actually Taliesin's build of Thor would totally trump this Iron Man as well; Thor decides not to hold back and so he does an all-out power attack on Iron Man with Mjolnir, he's got good enough attack to hit most of the time and does a +25 damage against Iron Man's +15 save, on an average roll of 10 that would have Disabled Tony, so obviously he rolled pretty well, in fact he probably rolled a 20. Iron Man gets back up, he's dazed and trying to figure out some attack to use, knowing another hit will take him out, and while he's doing that Thor power stunts an EMP (Nullify Electronics, Continuous, Fades) and takes out the armor entirely, Tony's player gets a hero point for Thor hitting one of his Complications but what does it help him, he's power less. Maybe he used that hero point to work out the deal granting Thor immunity from the SRA...

As for Iron Man's repulsors vs the Power Cosmic, note that Tony doesn't have Power Attack, so if he used the combat maneuver the highest damage he'd get without stunting is +18, while the Surfer can Power Attack for +21 damage instead, that's a bit of a difference in power really. Although it still doesn't look quite right actually, I'd say +14 base which can be pushed up to +16 with power attack sounds better, then give him a better attack bonus instead.

Taliesin; Great Iron Man and Vision there, excellent work as usual (despite my gripes) but on the Vision's Density, shouldn't that increase his Mass as well? Growth already includes a +1 Mass modifier per rank, it should be possible to crib that and use for Density as well to rebuild the power. Better yet thanks to the new power design you can custom build the mass gained, so that when he gains "infinite mass" at the highest level you can just throw in much higher level Mass rank than normal.

[Taliesin]

Taliesin; Great Iron Man and Vision there, excellent work as usual (despite my gripes) but on the Vision's Density, shouldn't that increase his Mass as well? Growth already includes a +1 Mass modifier per rank, it should be possible to crib that and use for Density as well to rebuild the power. Better yet thanks to the new power design you can custom build the mass gained, so that when he gains "infinite mass" at the highest level you can just throw in much higher level Mass rank than normal.

Read the Design Notes for Vision. Enhanced Strength, Limited to Resisting Movement is the direct build for mass increase. Any Str increase actually serves the same purpose when used as a Resistance against effects like Move Object and grabbing in general.

[Taliesin]

Hey Tal,

We have a Prof X, can we get a Magneto counterpart?

Yeah, he's done. I ended up making some changes to the telepaths, which took a bit of time. Mags will be up tomorrow. Onslaught...probably have to wait a bit, since I haven't written him up, obviously.

[Taliesin]

Gambit
PL10

Abilities
Strength 2, Stamina 3, Agility 7, Dexterity 5, Fighting 9, Intellect 1, Awareness 2, Presence 4

Powers
Kinetic Control: Array (16 points)

Kinetic Charge: Ranged Damage 6, Multiattack, Diminished Range 1 (10/25/50), Quirk (requires small objects) • 16 points
• Kinetic Blast: Area Burst Damage 8, Triggered (after one round), Quirk (requires large object) • 1 point

Static Interference: Concealment 2 (mental sense type); Immunity 2 (Mind Reading) • 6 points

Equipment
Armored Vest: Protection 1 • 1 point
Collapsible Staff: Strength-based Damage 2, Feature (concealable) • 3 points

Advantages
Agile Feint, Attractive, Defensive Roll 2, Equipment, Evasion, Fascinate (Deception), Grabbing Finesse, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Languages (English; base: Cajun French), Quick Draw, Ranged Attack 4, Redirect, Throwing Mastery

Skills
Acrobatics 10 (+17), Athletics 8 (+10), Close Combat: Quarterstaff 3 (+12), Deception 12 (+16), Expertise: Gambling 8 (+9), Expertise: Streetwise 8 (+9), Perception 6 (+8), Ranged Combat: Throwing 5 (+14), Sleight of Hand 12 (+17), Stealth 12 (+19), Technology 4 (+5)

Offense
Initiative +11
Collapsible Staff +12, Close, Damage 4
Kinetic Blast, Burst Area, Damage 8, Triggered
Kinetic Charge +14, Ranged, Damage 6, Multiattack
Unarmed +9, Close, Damage 2

Defense
Dodge 14, Parry 12
Toughness 6/4*, Fortitude 6, Will 12
*Without Defensive Roll bonus

Power Points
Abilities 66 + Powers 23 + Advantages 18 + Skills 44 + Defenses 23 = Total 175

Complications
Relationship: Hots for Rogue.
Reputation: Former Marauder.
Secret: Mutant.

Real Name: Remy LeBeau

Design Notes: Forthcoming.

[DesertGhost]

That...is...a...great...Gambit!

One of my all-time favs done with style. Quirk is perfect for his need for objects, so simple, so elegant.

Thanks Tal!

It's been a rough day, but you just made it for me.

[Psistrike]

Quirk just made some of the builds a lot easier to do now. Although Gambit's Ranged Combat: Throwing skill total should be +14 with Dexterity 5, Ranged Attack 4 and the skill at rank 5.