Tattooverse 2.5: WOF builds

[Tattooedman]

Longshot:
PL: 10 [150 pp]
M&M Ready to Play
Degree of Player Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Degree of GM Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Str 12 (+1) Dex 22 (+5) Con 14 (+2) Int 14 (+2) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 14 (+2)

Skills: Acrobatics 4 (+13), Climb 4 (+9), Diplomacy 4 (+6/+10), Drive 4 (+9), Escape Artist 4 (+13), Notice 4 (+5), Pilot 4 (+9), Sense Motive 4 (+5), Stealth 4 (+13)

Feats: Equipment 2, Set-Up, Teamwork

Powers: Genetically Engineered:
Enhanced Feat 1 [Attractive]
Enhanced Reflex Save 5
Enhanced Skills 3 [Acrobatics +4; Escape Artist +4; Stealth +4]

Wild Luck:
Enhanced Feats 43 [Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Focus (Melee) 4, Attack Spec. (Thrown Item) 4, Defensive Roll 4, Dodge Focus 8, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Improved Defense 2, Improved Initiative, Improved Ranged Disarm, Luck 4, Precise Shot, Ranged Pin, Throwing Mastery 7, Uncanny Dodge 2 (audio, visual)]
Probability Control 10 (Flaw: Side Effect [turn Jinx on him if his motives are selfish, or evil]); (Drawback: Noticeable [Glowing Eye])

Saves: Toughness +8*/+3**/+2 [*Leather Jacket & Defensive Roll/**Leather Jacket]
Fort +8
Ref +10
Will +7

Combat: Attack +4/+8 (Melee)/+12 (Thrown Items)
Defense +12 (+2 flat-footed)
Initiative +9

Equipment: Leather Jacket [+1 Toughness; Subtle]
Throwing Blades [+1 Damage; Critical 19-20]


Costs: Attributes 28+ Skills 9+ Feats 4+ Powers 83+ Saves 10+ Combat 16= 150 pts.


Complications:
Not From Around Here: Longshot’s lack of understanding of general knowledge of the world (such as working for a paycheck, how to spend money, asking why people eat slaughtered baby chickens with slices of burnt pig sides and many, many other things) combined with his only having three fingers per hand, mark him as someone not normal and tends to make him stand out.

Luck Is Fickle: If Longshot overuses the Probability Control of his Wild Luck power it can backfire against him, creating an equal and opposite "bad luck" effect on him or his teammates.



So since CD asked for him I figured I’d give a try on building Longshot.

Pretty much the standard Fortunate Hero overall, loads of Probability Control to use to improve any one skill rolled per turn (which is one reason most of his skills are so low in rank). But Longshot really isn’t a skill monkey type of character, in a team dynamic he‘s more about being able to stall a foe until the big hitter is ready to deal with them. Then he’s working to help the big hitter to connect with said bad guy.

Player’s need to be careful of being too reliant on Probability Control to make sure Longshot’s skill checks don’t suck, with his flaw (Luck is Fickle) it will come back to bight you on the hind end pretty quick if it’s used almost every time (something the GM needs to keep a mental tally of in the back of his head during game play).

The player also needs to be sure to keep Longshot out of melee, he’s way too fragile a build for that kind of stuff. He’s meant to be moving around, throwing whatever is at hand (normally his throwing blades but he can use anything lying around) to keep a foe’s focus on him and not what’s going on around them. Make use of Longshot’s Improved Defense 2 to stay safe, that will make him extremely hard to hit by most standards and will go a long way to keeping him in the fight.

[ClassDunce]

Awesome sauce. That's a good looking longshot! Since he's become a part of X-Factor I've gained an appreciation for the character.

[Tattooedman]

Glad you like how Longshot turned out CD, he wasn't that difficult of a build really. The biggest problem was figuring out his Enhanced Feats list, most of his fighting style is based upon his agility and (which he gets genetically) and his Wild Luck, but once I figured out what I wanted where the rest of the build pretty much fell into place quickly enough.

[Tattooedman]

Dr. Spectrum:
PL: 10 [150 pp]
M&M Ready to Play
Degree of Player Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Degree of GM Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Str 14 (+2) Dex 16 (+3) Con 14 (+2) Int 14 (+2) Wis 10 (+0) Cha 16 (+3)

Skills: Acrobatics 4 (+7), Bluff 6 (+9/+13), Concentration 12 (+12), Craft [Mechanical] 6 (+8.), Diplomacy 6 (+9/+13), Knowledge [Physical Sciences] 6 (+8.), Knowledge [Technology] 6 (+8.), Notice 8 (+8.), Pilot 8 (+11), Sense Motive 10 (+10)

Feats: Attractive, Attack Spec. [Power Prism] 2, Dodge Focus 2, Environmental Adaptation [Zero G], Improved Initiative, Improved Trick, Luck, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Uncanny Dodge [visual]

Powers: Device [Power Prism] 14 [hard to lose] (Power Feat: Restricted 2 [Spectrum only]); (Drawbacks: Power Loss: Against Pure Ultraviolet light) (-2 pts)
Energy Shapes: Create Object 12 (Extra: Moveable); (Power Feat: Precise) [Dynamic]
-Alt. Power: Blast 12 (Extra: Penetrating) [Dynamic]
-Alt. Power: Strike 10 [energy weapon] (Power Feat: Improved Critical 2, Mighty);
[Dynamic]
-Alt. Power: Flight 12 [Dynamic]
-Alt. Power: Move Object 12 (Extra: Perception Range) [Dynamic]
-Alt. Power: Snare 10 (Power Feats: Reversible, Tether) [Dynamic]
-Alt. Power: Obscure 6 [visual] (Extra: Selective) [Dynamic]
--Force Field 10
--Immunity 9 [Life Support]
--Space Flight 1

Saves: Toughness +12*/+2 [*Force Field]
Fort +8
Ref +8
Will +9

Combat: Attack +4/+8 (Power Prism)
Defense +8 (+3 flat-footed)
Initiative +7

Costs: Attributes 24+ Skills 18+ Feats 12+ Powers 56+ Saves 20+ Combat 20= 150 pts.

Complications:
Last of the Heroes: Dr. Spectrum is working with the other founding members of the Squadron Supreme to fight against the new government that took control of their home dimension during the Squadron’s absence. Right now it’s only those 7 beings against a world power and the Squadron is considered to be the villains thanks to the government’s control of the media.

Mind Controlled, Again!: For some reason, perhaps the people of that dimension are less resistant for some reason, it seems that the members of the Squadron are ending up becoming the mental dupes of some villain or another.


With Dr. Spectrum the big thing to remember is that you’re basically playing a color-blind Green Lantern. The power descriptor is pretty much the same and there’s a slight twist to the weakness of the device in question but game mechanically? No difference at all. As a character Dr. Spectrum is more of a ladies man (supposedly) and knows how to handle most kinds of planes with little trouble (which fits his background as an astronaut). So he’s got some skills that he really doesn’t use (2 different knowledge, & a craft, I mean NASA isn’t going to let an idiot fly their billion dollar space craft).

Spectrum’s another hero that makes use of a Dynamic Array that both the Player & the GM need to keep track of. Spectrum’s got some reliable attack powers and he’s one of those heroes that prefers to hit harder rather than hit more often. He’s always a good choice for teammates to use Teamwork with.

With his Create Object & Move Object, there isn’t much that Spectrum can’t deal with in one way or another. So don’t be afraid to break out big created items to cover whatever threats the GM throws your way, that’s half the fun of a character like Dr. Specturm – doing big, show off displays of power! If you’re not hamming it up every chance you get and hitting on every good looking woman and maybe annoying your teammates a bit then you’re not playing Spectrum to his most effective.

[Woodclaw]

Good work here, I admit I never expected Dr. Spectrum as a RtP. Right now my compter is in Black Screen of Death and I'm writing usin my mom's iPad.
Wish me luck.

[Arkrite]

You know you're talking like it was just the one time...

I had certain worries about playing a psychic. I mean, it was well within my abilities to go around reading the mind of everybody we ran into, but could you imagine how difficult that would have made things for the GM?
I tried my best to avoid the really game breaking powers (mind transfer, mind control), and all the ones which would have derailed the story if abused on a regular basis.
Lest, of course, we end up with the GM having to constantly throw guys with mind shield devices, or no knowledge of what is actually going on, or robots.

I actually turned it into a contest with myself, see how far I could get without using my powers and see how long I could go without getting into any unnessessary combat.

Of course the flaw was that I used my powers so infrequently that I forgot about everything other than the switchboard and the illuions ;~)

[CelticREI]

You know you're talking like it was just the one time...

I had certain worries about playing a psychic. I mean, it was well within my abilities to go around reading the mind of everybody we ran into, but could you imagine how difficult that would have made things for the GM?
I tried my best to avoid the really game breaking powers (mind transfer, mind control), and all the ones which would have derailed the story if abused on a regular basis.
Lest, of course, we end up with the GM having to constantly throw guys with mind shield devices, or no knowledge of what is actually going on, or robots.

I actually turned it into a contest with myself, see how far I could get without using my powers and see how long I could go without getting into any unnessessary combat.

Of course the flaw was that I used my powers so infrequently that I forgot about everything other than the switchboard and the illuions ;~)

I'm doing about the same for H4ck, I'm trying -really- hard to not make him a 'traditional' psychic (what with the pure melee focus, using Possession instead of Mind Control, low level of Mental Communication, not giving him power creep like Jean Gray [starts as a telepath, gains telekinetic, gains phoenix, gains goddess-hood], etc)
I think I -am- however going to change my mind on his Teleport, when I built it and made it and ESP Dynamic I said I'd use it instead of making Teleport Accurate. Honestly it is at a point that I can split it to use it up to like 1,000 feet and when I up my array I'll be able to do it to a mile. I'm just going to remove dynamic and make teleport accurate while keeping it with the Short Range flaw, so it's only (rank x 100) feet range.

[Tattooedman]

I hear what you two are saying Arkrite & Celtic, it's always good to stretch yourself when playing a character and difficult to make them stand out from the archetypes.

I've never played a Psychic in M&M, something I've debated on doing but just never got around to actually doing it. I might have to just do it if I ever try getting into another game once some of the the ones I'm currently in ends, (which I have two at this point that are drawing to a close soon).

For now though I'll get back to working on some more R2P builds but this time they're going to be a bit different. Remember when I said I was thinking of doing some PL 8/120 pp builds for the R2P?

Well, I've got some done. Let me know what you think of them.

[Tattooedman]

Lagoon Boy:
PL: 8 [120 pp]
M&M Ready to Play
Degree of Player Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Degree of GM Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Str 22 (+6) Dex 18 (+4) Con 22 (+6) Int 10 (+0) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 12 (+1)

Skills: Bluff 4 (+5), Climb 2 (+8.), Diplomacy 6 (+7), Intimidate 4 (+5), Notice 7 (+8.), Sense Motive 7 (+8.), Survival 6 (+7), Swim 4 (+10)

Feats: Attack Focus [Melee] 4, Dodge Focus 2, Favored Environment [Underwater] 2, Improved Initiative, Move-By Action

Powers: Container [Amphibious Nature] 2 (Power Feat: Innate)
--Enhanced Feats 1 [Environmental Adaptation (Underwater)]
--Immunity 3 [Environmental Cold, Pressure, Underwater Suffocation]
--Super Strength 1
--Swimming 4

Container [Puffer Fish Traits] 5 (Power Feat: Innate)
Energy Aura 5 [body quills]
Enhanced Feats 4 [Fearsome Presence (Will DC 14; 20 ft radius)]
Feature [can appear to be twice his normal size]

Scaly Skin & Claws:
Protection 2 (Drawback: Noticeable (scaley skin) [-1 pt])
Strike 2 (Power Feat: Mighty)

Saves: Toughness +8
Fort +8
Ref +8
Will +5

Combat: Attack +4/+8 (Melee)
Defense +8 [underwater]/+6 (+3 [underwater]/+2 flat-footed)
Initiative +8


Costs: Attributes 36+ Skills 10+ Feats 10+ Powers 41+ Saves 7+ Combat 16= 120 pts.


Complications:
Hero In Training: Lagoon Boy plans to become an aquatic hero once he’s fully grown, filling the role of Aquaman in the League, and is constantly ‘training’ himself.


I thought for the first of my P2P builds at PL 8 I’d try one of the basic archetypes, the Amphibian. So here’s Lagoon Boy! He’s pretty well rounded at PL 8 aside from his Defense, which he needs to be in water to fully reach but otherwise he’s got enough going for him to be a threat on land if the need arises, so he plays straight forward enough in combat. One thing to note on his build is that most of his powers are Innate, meaning that basically they can’t be affected by Nullify effects.

Lagoon Boy’s not too bad a build overall, he’s more of a scrapper on land than anything else and most of his skills aren’t too highly ranked though he could use the aid action if he wanted to lend a hand to a more skilled teammate it the player felt it might do some good. In the water however he’s got better Defense and can get the most out of his Move-By Action feat, and he could tear into an opponent fairly well.

I’ve not read anything with Lagoon Boy in it so I got all of my info on him from Wikipedia, just to let everyone know, and I’ll admit that I left out a couple minor things that were mentioned but they were powers/abilities that weren’t clearly defined and really muddied up the character from what I could tell.

[Tattooedman]

Jayna:
PL: 8 [120 pp]
M&M Ready to Play
Degree of Player Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Degree of GM Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Str 10 (+0) Dex 14 (+2) Con 12 (+1) Int 10 (+0) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 14 (+2)

Skills: Bluff 6 (+8.), Diplomacy 8 (+10), Intimidate 8 (+10), Knowledge [Life Sciences] 6 (+6), Knowledge [Pop Culture] 4 (+4), Notice 6 (+6), Pilot 6 (+8.), Sense Motive 6 (+6), Stealth 6 (+8.),

Feats: Defensive Roll 3, Dodge Focus 4, Improved Initiative, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Task Focus [Knowledge (Life Sciences): Animal Biology], Teamwork 2

Powers: Shape Of …: Shapeshift 9 (Flaw: Limited [animals only], Limited [must make physical contact with Zan before new form is assumed])
Twin Telepathy: Super-Senses 1 [Communication Link (Zan)] (Power Feat: Innate)

Saves: Toughness +4*/+1 [*Defensive Roll]
Fort +5
Ref +6
Will +6

Combat: Attack +4
Damage [varies based on form]
Defense +6 (+2 flat-footed)
Initiative +6


Costs: Attributes 12+ Skills 14+ Feats 13+ Powers 56+ Saves 13+ Combat 12= 120 pts.


Complications:
Not From Earth: Jayna is an alien from the planet Exor and doesn’t understand many of the cultural custom of Earth. She also has personal tastes that others might find strange (such as her enjoying the taste of CDs).

Never Again: Jayna has spent most of her life as a slave and will fight with everything she has to keep herself and her brother (Zan) free.



Shapeshifters can be difficult to stat out. I mean it’s a question of balance more than anything else really. How much of the character’s feats are from training and not their powers? It can be a bit overwhelming at first (that’s experience talking here gang).

Jayna shows that a character can have some skills and feats that aren’t from powers while being reliant on those powers to cover her in combat. A good bit of her shapeshift pool will have to go to ranks of attack focus (melee) & dodge focus to make her a viable threat in a fight but it’s completely doable.

Like I said way back when I first posted Martian Manhunter, the trick for a GM to make use of when dealing with Shapeshift is to make the Player supply a pre-written set of forms to use during gameplay. That way any issues can be dealt with before hand and there are no surprises for the GM (at least as far as how the player plans on using the Shapeshift power that is).

GMs, don’t be afraid to tell a player no if you think some of their ideas are overpowering or game breaking in some way. I’m not saying you have to be mean or nasty about it but if you simply explain your issue with said use of power most responsible players will be more than willing to work with you to come to a compromise that both of you will be happy with.

[Tattooedman]

Zan:
PL: 8 [120 pp]
M&M Ready to Play
Degree of Player Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Degree of GM Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Str 14 (+2) Dex 10 (+0) Con 14 (+2) Int 10 (+0) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 12 (+1)

Skills: Bluff 6 (+7), Intimidate 9 (+10), Knowledge [Earth Sciences] 6 (+6), Knowledge [Pop Culture] 4 (+4), Notice 6 (+7), Pilot 5 (+5), Sense Motive 8 (+9), Stealth 8 (+8.),

Feats: Defensive Roll 3, Dodge Focus 4, Improved Initiative, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Task Focus [Knowledge (Earth Sciences): Physics & Chemistry of Water], Teamwork 2

Powers: Form Of …: Shapeshift 9 (Flaw: Limited [water in any state (solid, liquid, gas)], Limited [must make physical contact with Jayna before new form is assumed])
Twin Telepathy: Super-Senses 1 [Communication Link (Jayna)] (Power Feat: Innate)

Saves: Toughness +5*/+2 [*Defensive Roll]
Fort +6
Ref +5
Will +6

Combat: Attack +4
Damage [varies by form]
Defense +6 (+2 flat-footed)
Initiative +4


Costs: Attributes 12+ Skills 13+ Feats 13+ Powers 56+ Saves 14+ Combat 12= 120 pts.


Complications:
Not From Earth: Zan is an alien from the planet Exor and doesn’t understand many of the cultural custom of Earth. She also has personal tastes that others might find strange (such as his enjoying the taste of CDs).

Never Again: Zan has spent most of his life as a slave and will fight with everything he has to keep himslef and his sister (Jayna) free.


Zan is a shapeshifter of a different style, especially when compared to his sister Jayna (who is a much more traditional styled shapeshifter). His changes are only into a set theme (water based forms) which could also be better handled with an array of Alternate Forms. But Shapeshift with his limits isn’t that much more expensive really so to keep it simple I went that route.

Like his sister, Zan needs to take ranks of attack focus (melee & ranged depending on powers selected) & dodge focus so that he isn't completely useless in a fight but that's part of the beauty of Shapeshift - it allows a character to do such things. But that's one of the things the GM needs to keep an eye on when it's used so that it isn't abused.

Again like his sister, dealing with Zan is all about the pre-game time work for the player - have ready made combat stats for the game. I can’t stress this idea enough, I’ve seen it kill the momentum of a game too many times for five people (not counting the GM) having to sit around & wait on the one player with Shapeshift try and figure out how to divide out his Shapeshift point pool only to change it up the following round and force everyone to wait some more.

Granted most of Zan’s forms are going to be pretty similar in the long run, I mean there’s only so many water related forms to come up with. With that said I’d allow someone playing Zan to include blasts of water/ice in those other forms, it’s a bit of a stretch but it plays within the realm of comic book science on powers IMO and it’s something that I’d not allow often.

[Shock]

Props for doing Zan and Jayna but I snickered a little when you said you went with Shapeshift to keep things simple.

[Tattooedman]

Props for doing Zan and Jayna but I snickered a little when you said you went with Shapeshift to keep things simple.

Thanks.

As for my choice in phrasing I meant it to mean that going with Shapeshift was the simpler route to go compared to coming up with at least 3 Alternate Forms.

Then every time ‘the player’ would want to come up with a new form they’d have to power stunt it, so using Shapeshift instead gives a bit more creative freedom to build the water based forms than Alternate Form would.

[catsi563]

Ill also throw in props and kudos for doing those two. The JLU versions were awesome takes on the characters, and you do them justice.

Shapeshifters are one of my personal favorite character types to play, and i agree whole heartedly that having pre made forms ready to go is the only way to do it.

[Tattooedman]

Vixen:
PL: 8 [120 pp]
M&M Ready to Play
Degree of Player Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Degree of GM Difficulty (Novice/Experienced/Advanced)
Str 10 (+0) Dex 14 (+2) Con 14 (+2) Int 10 (+0) Wis 14 (+2) Cha 14 (+2)

Skills: Acrobatics 4 (+6), Bluff 4 (+6/+10), Diplomacy 4 (+6/+10), Notice 6 (+8.), Sense Motive 6 (+8.), Stealth 8 (+10), Survival 4 (+6)

Feats: Animal Empathy, Attack Focus [Melee] 4, Attractive, Defensive Roll 4, Dodge Focus 2, Power Attack, Teamwork

Powers: Accessing The Morphogenetic Field: Animal Mimicry 6

Saves: Toughness +6*/+2 [*Defensive Roll]
Fort +5
Ref +5
Will +5

Combat: Attack +4/+8 (Melee)
Defense +6 (+2 flat-footed)
Initiative +6

Equipment: Tantu Totem


Costs: Attributes 16+ Skills 9+ Feats 14+ Powers 56+ Saves 9+ Combat 16= 120 pts.


Complications:
Animal Instincts: Vixen can be overwhelmed by the behaviour of the animals she is copying if she does it for too long. The Tantu Totem prevents this from happening but if she is deprived of it or her connection to the Totem is altered somehow she must be careful.

Responsibility~Use powers for good: Vixen feels that she has to use her powers to help those in need.


I’m noticing that I seem to like doing this variable power themed builds…..maybe I need to get some help? Anyways Vixen is one of the few animal mimics around and I’ve already done a build of Animal Man.

Vixen’s built with a preference for melee fighting, but she could get by with a ranged attack or two but honestly there’s not too many animals with energy blasts right (not counting dragons that is which Vixen is supposed to be able to mimic anyways)? Normally most of the ranged attacks she’d use would be Strike with a couple ranks of Extended Reach added onto them (and thus keep it within the realm of her melee attacking ability).

Most of Vixen’s caps are supposed to be filled by her Animal Mimicry, shifting her Toughness and Damage caps around dependant upon whichever animals she is copying at the moment. Yes Vixen has shown herself to be able to copy multiple animals at once, I attribute this to what I like to call the Chimera Effect; taking the best of several animals at once to get what she needs to finish the fight or solve the current problem. And that’s what the GM needs to keep an eye on to make sure the Player doesn’t abuse that idea, otherwise it will go downhill pretty quickly.

I know Vixen doesn’t fit great into a PL 8, I really only wanted to do a couple teen hero builds at that PL but I wanted to do her slightly different than some of the other builds there are of her. It was a bit rough fitting her down into 120 pp but I managed it and it hits all the highlights of her as a character.