Taliesin's builds: 3E moved to sister thread

[Taliesin]

Taliesin, whenever you can get back around to it, I'd like to request some more Soul Calibur builds. The attention to detail evident in your fighting game builds continues to astonish me.

Also, my request for Street Fighter III characters still stands.

Acknowledged. I'll get around to fighting builds again, I think...

The problem is that every time I go back around to adding builds to a series, I feel like totally deconstructing and revamping my existing builds in that series, and I never get around to new ones.

[Taliesin]

Good work Taliesin, as ever.

I live for your approval, my most steadfast of commentators.

[NCOoarashi]

In that case, let me be the second to compliment you on your most recent builds.



The other day, a few friends from the campaign I *play* in were over and we decided to hold a quick "Superhero Tournament". We used your builds along with those of our characters. We used only heroes PL 10-12, as all of our heroes are PL10/159pp so far.

It should come as no surprise to you that among Catastrophe (my character) and Double-Down (a friend's), the semi-finalists were Sabretooth and Nightcrawler. Apparently linking Strike (for which I'm assuming you fudged the rules for character accuracy reasons) to a Teleport that is *just* strong enough to go 200 ft. up and turnabout back down is awesome. He never fought anyone that could Fly, and until fighting Catastrophe in the finals didn't fight anyone that could Teleport either. Those DC35 falling saves are brutal.

[Unknown Soldier]

Good work Taliesin, as ever.

Taliesin once statted himself, but it was too gamebreaking to exist, so it exploded. This day was July 4th, 2007 years ago, and that's where the 4th of July comes from.

True story.

[Taliesin]

In that case, let me be the second to compliment you on your most recent builds.



The other day, a few friends from the campaign I *play* in were over and we decided to hold a quick "Superhero Tournament". We used your builds along with those of our characters. We used only heroes PL 10-12, as all of our heroes are PL10/159pp so far.

It should come as no surprise to you that among Catastrophe (my character) and Double-Down (a friend's), the semi-finalists were Sabretooth and Nightcrawler. Apparently linking Strike (for which I'm assuming you fudged the rules for character accuracy reasons) to a Teleport that is *just* strong enough to go 200 ft. up and turnabout back down is awesome. He never fought anyone that could Fly, and until fighting Catastrophe in the finals didn't fight anyone that could Teleport either. Those DC35 falling saves are brutal.

I didn't fudge the rules; I actually borrowed that whole-cloth from UP, so I can't really take much credit for that design.

But yeah, it's a huge disadvantage getting pwned by someone who can fly/teleport you into dangerous situations you can't get out of.

[Taliesin]

Good work Taliesin, as ever.

Taliesin once statted himself, but it was too gamebreaking to exist, so it exploded. This day was July 4th, 2007 years ago, and that's where the 4th of July comes from.

True story.

Uh...how old do you think I am?

Heh, thanks for the props, regardless!

[NCOoarashi]

In that case, let me be the second to compliment you on your most recent builds.



The other day, a few friends from the campaign I *play* in were over and we decided to hold a quick "Superhero Tournament". We used your builds along with those of our characters. We used only heroes PL 10-12, as all of our heroes are PL10/159pp so far.

It should come as no surprise to you that among Catastrophe (my character) and Double-Down (a friend's), the semi-finalists were Sabretooth and Nightcrawler. Apparently linking Strike (for which I'm assuming you fudged the rules for character accuracy reasons) to a Teleport that is *just* strong enough to go 200 ft. up and turnabout back down is awesome. He never fought anyone that could Fly, and until fighting Catastrophe in the finals didn't fight anyone that could Teleport either. Those DC35 falling saves are brutal.

I didn't fudge the rules; I actually borrowed that whole-cloth from UP, so I can't really take much credit for that design.

But yeah, it's a huge disadvantage getting pwned by someone who can fly/teleport you into dangerous situations you can't get out of.

Well, then, I rescind my comment. I just thought there was some ruling in the Core Book that said you can't link Standard actions to Move actions, but I'm probably wrong. In any event, using Teleport/Turnabout is a very hilarious way of "breaking power level caps" for lower end campaigns. A DC35 toughness save for a character that could have a +15 attack... pretty cool, especially considering a minimum investment of 5pp (Teleport 4 + Short-Range Only + Turnabout).

[Taliesin]

Well, then, I rescind my comment. I just thought there was some ruling in the Core Book that said you can't link Standard actions to Move actions, but I'm probably wrong. In any event, using Teleport/Turnabout is a very hilarious way of "breaking power level caps" for lower end campaigns. A DC35 toughness save for a character that could have a +15 attack... pretty cool, especially considering a minimum investment of 5pp (Teleport 4 + Short-Range Only + Turnabout).

The rule on Linking is actually that the ranges must be the same. It still makes the UP suggestion a little odd, since Strike and Teleport have different ranges, but the idea is that you teleport away a part of your victim, and you can carry passengers with you, so the teleport is sort of touch ranged, making it a Penetrating Strike. With Linked powers having different actions, the action which takes the longest becomes the action of the Linked Power (a Standard action, in this case).

Teleport, Flight, and Super-Strength can all take advantage of no caps to produce some pretty mean effects. Teleport does offer a Reflex save, however, to unwilling passengers. A Teleport Attack would use an attack roll, as usual.

[Unknown Soldier]

I got to pondering this last night, Tally, and I thought I'd come to you for suggestions. How you you make this power?

This character basically will have absorption of energy attacks. What he does is absorb the energy from, say, a blast of fire, and use the 'energy' from that blast to cast magical spells.

I.E.

Wizard is hit with a 15 blast. He has 10 rank of absorption, and (I think) makes his DC 20 check, absorbing the first ten ranks of the damage. He now takes those 10 rank of blast, and converts them into raw, magical energy, and uses them to cast a teleportation spell, and get the heck out of Dodge. Alternativly, he could have made a blast of air, fire, water. Even used it to create a force field around him.

[Libra]

I live for your approval, my most steadfast of commentators.

So you should, youngster, so you should.

[Taliesin]

I got to pondering this last night, Tally, and I thought I'd come to you for suggestions. How you you make this power?

This character basically will have absorption of energy attacks. What he does is absorb the energy from, say, a blast of fire, and use the 'energy' from that blast to cast magical spells.

I.E.

Wizard is hit with a 15 blast. He has 10 rank of absorption, and (I think) makes his DC 20 check, absorbing the first ten ranks of the damage. He now takes those 10 rank of blast, and converts them into raw, magical energy, and uses them to cast a teleportation spell, and get the heck out of Dodge. Alternativly, he could have made a blast of air, fire, water. Even used it to create a force field around him.

Sorry, I didn't see this earlier. This looks like:

Absorption 10 (Energy attacks; Power Feat: Energy Conversion; 41pp)
Absorption Boosts
Base Boost: Boost 20 (Teleport; 0pp)
AP: Boost 20 (Blast; 1pp)

Instead of actually having the Magic Array, he'd just have an array of Boosts.

I generally don't like to use the Absorption construct much. A character who, for instance, absorbs ambient cosmic energy could probably be best constructed with a Power Loss (when deprived of ambient cosmic energy), but this build looks like an appropriate use of Absorption.

[Taliesin]

I live for your approval, my most steadfast of commentators.

So you should, youngster, so you should.

Heh, better being called "youngster" than being told I'm over 2007 years old.

[Libra]

Well, I am a cosmic overlord and I haven't bothered looking up your date of joining, so I can call you youngster.

(If we ignore little things like actual Age by the calender.)

[Taliesin]

I'm back! And really tired of making Speed Force angels for the past year!

The Flash
Wally West

Power Level: 12 (188pp)

Abilities: STR: 14 (+2), DEX: 14 (+2), CON: 14 (+2), INT: 14 (+2), WIS: 12 (+1), CHA: 12 (+1)

Skills: Computers 4 (+6), Investigate 4 (+6), Knowledge [Physical Sciences] 8 (+10)

Feats: Attack Focus [Melee] 2, Dodge Focus 10, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Fast Overrun, Improved Initiative 6, Move-By Action, Quick Change

Powers:
Concealment 4 (visual; Flaw: Limited [while running, otherwise Displacement; -1/2]; 6pp)
Immunity 7 (Need for Sleep, Speed Force-related Trait effects, Starvation and Thirst; 7pp)
Protection 6 (6pp)
Quickness 20 (x5,000,000; 20pp)
Speed 20 (near light-speed; Power Feat: Moving Feint; 21pp)
Speed Force Array 16 (32pp)
Base Power: Rapid Attack 16 (80-ft. radius; 0pp)
AP: Air Control 16 (1pp)
AP: Deflect 16 (slow and fast projectiles; 1pp)
AP: Insubstantial 4 (1pp)
AP: Nullify Movement 16 (1pp)
AP: Strike 16 (Extra: Autofire [+1]; 1pp)
Super-Movement 3 (Trackless [olfactory], Wall-Crawling, Water Walking; Flaw: Limited [while running; -1]; 3pp)

Combat: Attack +6 / +8 (Melee); Damage +2 (Unarmed) / +16 (Strike, Autofire); Defense +16 (+3 flat-footed); Initiative +26

Saves: Toughness +8, Fortitude +6, Reflex +16, Will +4

Drawbacks: Involuntary Transformation (Dimensional Movement into Speed Force, when Extraordinary Effort used on Speed Force powers; Uncommon, Major; -3pp)

Abilities 20 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 24 + Powers 100 + Combat 24 + Saves 21 – Drawbacks 3 = Total 190

Complications: Enemy (Rogues), Fame (especially in Keystone City), Responsibility (wife and children)

I really dislike the construction of the Super-Speed power, particularly the excessive ranks of Improved Initiative; Wally’s six ranks are probably overkill as it is. For practical purposes, the ranks in Speed probably don’t need to be terribly high to be useful, either; in this case, I gave the Flash 20 ranks for descriptive purposes. I also decided against arraying Quickness with another power.

In addition, he has a separate Array to handle Speed Force tricks; this array is appropriate for most Super-Speed alternate powers as well as those suggested for Kinetic Control, reflecting the nearly universal nature of the Speed Force. Effects relegated to power stunts include Paralyze (completely removing all momentum from a target), Penetrating Strike (vibrating or phasing to impart damaging kinetic energy to an object), Boost Movement (sharing speed with another), and Sustained Regeneration (speeding up his or others’ natural healing factor). Wally’s Concealment has a Flaw on a Flaw (equivalent to a -1/2 modifier); when running, he’s completely invisible, but when he’s not running, he still retains Displacement.

Wally is unique among speedsters, even among the Flashes, as the first to mainline the Speed Force. Though he’s not as skilled as Barry in certain respects, he can perform tricks that most other Flashes cannot. Due to his unique connection to the Speed Force, Wally is also immune to any trait effects that would deprive him of the ability to access the Speed Force. If Wally uses Extraordinary Effort on any of his powers, he runs the risk of being absorbed into the Speed Force.

Update 2/12/08 I totally removed the standard build using Super-Speed and streamlined Wally’s primary array to make Dynamic unnecessary.

[Libra]

Wallys back! Huzzah.

Obligatory awkward question time: Have you statted Kyle yet?