Sandstorm

[The Overseer]

Hi guys,

Looking to create a character similar to Spiderman's enemy Sand-man.

I have a rough idea how I want the character to be but I would like to give him a 'signature' attack.

I would like him to be able to explode into a whirling sandstorm (as X-men's dust can).

I figure this would be an area attack centered on where his main mass would originally have been, but I am not sure how to make the attack continual over a period of time.

Any thoughts?

[Bloodstone]

Which edition of the rules? Cost and terminology vary a bit here...

Also, this is rather expensive ability if you want it to be anywhere near as effective as Dust's power...

The basic idea would be an xd6 Energy Blast or RKA, AoE (Radius of choice), Continuous, Personal Immunity and with the No Range limitation.

You would also likely want a linked Flash effect with similar advantages.

If the character is Desoldified at the time, such powers will need Affects Physical World...

[The Overseer]

That sounds excellent... It's 6E rules but I am not too bothered by the cost of the power.

I have a particularly large group of players to GM for (around 10 usually) so I need bad guys who are going to be difficult to deal with.

Thanks for the response, I will have a look at it on the hero builder shortly ;)


Just given it a whirl (no pun intended) and it gives me a 135 cost with the RKA... Not bad at all!

[BoloOfEarth]

A Darkness to Sight Group might also be appropriate, in addition to the RKA and Flash. Either that, or a Change Environment with a decent penalty to PER. People shouldn't easily be able to see things inside the sandstorm.

And, as an Evil GM (patent pending), I'd avoid the No Range limitation because the heroes will just stay outside the storm and lob attacks into the center. Alternately, you could add Missile Deflection to screw with that. Seems reasonable, with the howling cyclone at the center.

[BoloOfEarth]

Also, consider making the Flash an NND (defense is hard eye covering).

[Chimera 12]

Also, consider making the Flash an NND (defense is hard eye covering).

This one I'm not sure about. Having your eyes covered may prevent sand from getting into them -- but wouldn't you be blinded just as effectively if it instead clung to your visor for a few moments? Besides, we do have a defense specifically against Flashes already; it's called, appropriately enough, Flash Defense, and given the relatively narrow range of attacks it already protects against for its cost I'd be seriously leery of designing Flashes that can simply bypass it based on a relatively common special effect.

Then again, I'm not necessarily sold on the whole Flash aspect of the power anyway; Darkness or Change Environment to inflict PER penalties, as mentioned above, would strike me personally as sufficient.

[Ice9]

Darkness/CE would cover the "can't see because there's sand in the way" aspects. The Flash would be for lingering effects from getting sand in your eyes, that would continue for a few phases after you left the cloud.

[Chimera 12]

Darkness/CE would cover the "can't see because there's sand in the way" aspects. The Flash would be for lingering effects from getting sand in your eyes, that would continue for a few phases after you left the cloud.

I get that part -- I just don't know that I'd consider it a particularly important prospective aspect of the power to model. But then, that's an OP call.

[pinecone]

Hi guys,

Looking to create a character similar to Spiderman's enemy Sand-man.

I have a rough idea how I want the character to be but I would like to give him a 'signature' attack.

I would like him to be able to explode into a whirling sandstorm (as X-men's dust can).

I figure this would be an area attack centered on where his main mass would originally have been, but I am not sure how to make the attack continual over a period of time.

Any thoughts?

In the "old days(tm)" I made a sand storm ish dude who had a Multi...one slot was NND AE zero range + Flash AE zero range...he had defense vs both...or you could buy Personal immunity Say 3D6 NND+2-4 D6 Flash both AE radius and looking good....?

[The Overseer]

This is what I love about this system... So many different ways to achieve what you want.