Enforcers Incorporated

[Killer Shrike]

Zardoz looks interesting. I keep looking at him and thinking...."He cant really be THAT effective at 100 points.....can he?"

Very scary. Of course anybody with Mental Defense of 10 or more is pretty much immune to him, which is kind of a neat story element.

A minor quibble: He cant use his TK Shield in conjunction with another slot; it has 90 AP

Otherwise fairly cool. On the one hand, I can see the Enforcers hiring him on full time as thier resident mentalist and intelligence gatherer, but on the other they all lack mental defenses except Bronto, so theyd be afraid to deal with him in person.....

Well done!

[OddHat]

Thank you sir.

Re: Telekinetic Shield
For some reason I was thinking 30 real cost for flight + 30 real cost for Force Field = One 60 point slot out of a 120 point pool. I'll fix it.

Originally his Telepathy, MC and Mental Illusions were all double penetrating. Almost no-one outside of an all mentalists campaign buys double hardened Mental Defense...including Unger. When I spotted that, I upped the effect to 2d6 per phase and dropped the ability to burn through mental shields. I see that it's still in the origin section though; I'll fix that.

[Killer Shrike]

Heh...yeah, I forgot about Unger's "Mental Conditioning" -- I added that to the character at the last minute bcs it occured to me that without it any Telepath would be able to spot him as a fake. With 25 MD he can at least hold out a few Phases vs most Telepaths, and if he's not too happy with thier meddling pop a cap or three into them.

As a side note, while Im on the subject.....

When I make characters I always try to leave in (or actually build in) at least one weakness that isnt necessarily obvious but is exploitable once known.

For The Machine I deliberately left him open to Mentalists and Adjusters. He's no better off vs them than anybody else (except for EGO Attacks and Drains vs CON of course).

Bronto I just made super durable, but he's also affected by Adjustments. His weakness is he's more defensive than offensive. And his fighting style is much better at one on one fighting -- he would have a harder time with a group. Basically he can absorb punishment, but he isnt an "OMG!!!!--Do something about that guy before he kills us all" villain. He's just "muscle".

Jackhammer is the classic easily-controlled brick. He's much more dangerous and pretty decent vs a group (unlike Bronto), but cant take the same level of punishment and will burn out fast due to END expenditures. Any Mentalist should just go to town with him, but even just a clever opponent with Conversation or PRE could trick him into doing dumb things.

Unger has low physical and energy defense -- he's all offense -- he can dish it but not take it.

[OddHat]

Fixed the TK shield, altered the origin story very slightly and spell checked (something I don't often do with Hero Designer).

I agree that invincible characters are a mistake, for players and GMs. No weaknesses (or too specific weaknesses, aka the Kryptonite factor) make for a dull or "unfair" game.

Diana-Bol is a standard brick vulnerable to energy projectors and mentalists. Milos can be hurt by almost anyone, and his powers can be blocked by a good pair of sunglasses. The King is mostly offense (his best defense is exhausting) and can be overwhelmed by a superior fighter, and Zardoz is a wimp once you spot him.

That said, he is almost as optimized as possible for 100 points; I'm not used to FREd yet, and I wanted to see just what you could do in the low point ranges. Also, nothing is quite as scary as a sniper.

[Zed-F]

I guess Zardoz's background doesn't really allow for total anonymity, but that would be a very valuable Perk for snipers who rely on long build-up invisible power effects powers. It'd be fairly easy for anyone with Streetwise to turn the tables on him, and as you say he's easy to deal with once you've spotted him. He's much better at playing the role of a hunter rather than the hunted.

[OddHat]

Originally posted by Zed-F
I guess Zardoz's background doesn't really allow for total anonymity, but that would be a very valuable Perk for snipers who rely on long build-up invisible power effects powers. It'd be fairly easy for anyone with Streetwise to turn the tables on him, and as you say he's easy to deal with once you've spotted him. He's much better at playing the role of a hunter rather than the hunted.

Agreed. You can build low point total supers with very effective abilities, but they'll tend to be niche characters, powerful in their speciality and as vulnerable as a normal outside of it. It lends them a very different feeling from their 350+ point cousins.

I have a 350 point version of Zardoz that could wipe out most groups without working up a sweat.

[Zed-F]

Well if 100-point chars like Zardoz can be here, I guess I could throw Warg into the ring. His stats and background can be found in this thread.

As a contract mercenary, Warg would probably be cheap muscle, but the kind you hire when you want to make a statement rather than do something quietly. One thing an employer could count on is that he'd get noticed. An unscrupulous employer might see potential to use him as bait for a trap. Warg wouldn't advertise his ability to change into Warg form, and it might take a bit of background digging to find out about it, but he wouldn't deny it if the subject came up. Depending on the nature of the contract, that ability could be seen as an asset or a liability -- and assuming the Enforcers know about it, it's something they might or might not want to communicate to a potential employer, depending on whether they want to influence the outcome of the contract.

Warg would probably be uncomfortable taking a contract where he was expected to rough up someone who he thought was innocent of any crime, but he wouldn't have compunctions about bounty hunting or taking a contract from someone dirty to go after another dirty rival. He'd also be relatively easy to dupe, assuming one took some care as to how one approached doing so and didn't fly in the face of his streetwise knowledge.

From the employer's point of view, Warg's two main advantages are he's noticeable, and he's cheap. Warg has pretty much no business sense and no money management skills, and the two of those combine to keep him perpetually broke and a small fish in the mercenary pond.

[Killer Shrike]

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[Killer Shrike]

Alternatately, scrape together 30 bucks or so and buy HERO Designer

[Zed-F]

Thanks for the formatting help. I've updated the post.

Seeing as how I just bought FREd, and how little I have actually played Hero over the last several years, I'm finding it hard to justify considering purchasing Hero Designer ATM. Especially since it would be about $50-60 CDN...

[Killer Shrike]

OK, I looked over Warg, and ended up putting him into Hero Designer just bcs I got tired of looking at the raw HTML format. I went ahead and posted the character for you in HD format in the other thread.

He's a cool character, the only problem I see with him mechanically is a couple of the Disadvantages on the extra form overlap too much -- Phys Lim Animal Mentality and Psy Lim Feral seem pretty similar.

Also, a Multiform extra form has the same Base and Disadvantages limits as the base form, but Warg's Beast Form has 50 extra. Technically that should be paid for as Experience, costing the base form IIRC 10 more points before lims in this case.

But, all minor quibbles.

As far as him working for Enforcers Inc, could a few tweaks be made to his background to facilitate that? As it is currently written I cant see the character working for anyone, and he's sufficiently disgusting I cant see too many people willing to hire him -- if nothing else there's the smell.

[Zed-F]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike
OK, I looked over Warg, and ended up putting him into Hero Designer just bcs I got tired of looking at the raw HTML format. I went ahead and posted the character for you in HD format in the other thread.

Ok, thanx.

He's a cool character, the only problem I see with him mechanically is a couple of the Disadvantages on the extra form overlap too much -- Phys Lim Animal Mentality and Psy Lim Feral seem pretty similar.

I tend to view them as separate deals, given that animals aren't necessarily (or even usually) feral, and that villains often have similar psych limitations to feral (e.g. cold-blooded killer) without having restrictions on their level of mentality. The animal mentality indicates that Warg has little consideration for things that humans might consider important while he's in Warg form, including whatever his current mission is supposed to be, protecting teammates, keeping out of trouble, etc. -- he's only interested in (a) protecting himself, (b) hunting for food, and (c) being left alone, in that order. The Feral limitation indicates how easily he is provoked and how aggressive he is. A regular wolf (without the feral limitation) would seek to avoid contact with humans and would most likely just beat it if confronted (unless cornered or otherwise forced to fight.) Warg, on the other hand, would hold his ground, snarl, and lunge if the offending party didn't back off within a few seconds.

Still, I included extra limitations with the view that some GMs might quibble about how many points each limitation ought to be worth, so it should all come out in the wash, regardless.

Also, a Multiform extra form has the same Base and Disadvantages limits as the base form, but Warg's Beast Form has 50 extra. Technically that should be paid for as Experience, costing the base form IIRC 10 more points before lims in this case.

Hmm. Looking at the Multiform examples in FREd, and at the description of the power, all seems in order. It does say that the base points are the same, but doesn't say anything about the disadvantages having the same maximums -- it just says the disadvantages must balance out the costs. Certainly the examples of the 400 point dinosaur form for the 350 point hero or the 300-point wolfman/225 point wolf for the 150-point hero wouldn't fit with a restriction such as you've described.

I would tend to think that having to come up with enough disadvantages to make up the difference from the base cost would be a sufficient limitation most of the time. That 300-point wolfman is going to need 225 points of disads to balance out, which could be challenging to do in the first place and fairly crippling in the second (certainly if the GM makes appropriate use of them.)

But, all minor quibbles.

As far as him working for Enforcers Inc, could a few tweaks be made to his background to facilitate that? As it is currently written I cant see the character working for anyone, and he's sufficiently disgusting I cant see too many people willing to hire him -- if nothing else there's the smell.

Possible, if you have something in mind run it past me and I'll ok it. It shouldn't be too hard to come up with something, though I'd prefer you add background rather than edit existing background.

Again, as he stands, if you're hiring him, it's because you want his smell -- you want something done in a particularily disgusting/degrading way, or you want something to get noticed. He's VERY good at being a distraction.

[Killer Shrike]

The book isnt real clear on this (as in doesnt state it at all), but you might want to check the Powers FAQ regarding Multiform. The extra forms have the same Base Points and Disadvantage Maximum as the base character; all other points over that are treated as Experience. There is a rather lengthy series of Multiform related entries.

[Zed-F]

Funny, I did check there. It seems to support what I said above.

To quote:

A: “Base Points,” per the glossary on 5E 6-7, means the Character Points the character receives for free at the beginning of the game — for example, 75 points in a 75 Base + 100 Disads campaign. All Multiforms are built with the same Base Points — not necessarily the same point totals.

The true form does not necessarily have to be the form with the most points. You can build a Multiform on more than the true form’s Base Points + Disadvantages. Restricting Multiform to just the Base Points + Disadvantages (plus, presumably, Experience Points earned) could potentially cut off a lot of interesting power constructs.

For example, the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the HERO System Bestiary costs over 300 points. Suppose you’re playing in a 100 Base + 150 Disadvantages game, and a character wants the power to change into a tyrannosaur. If you limit the Multiform to 250 points, he can’t do what he wants to do — even if it would have no significant negative effect on game balance at all.

But that’s far from the end of the story. First, as noted in the Multiform rules text, you still have to justify the alternate form’s points with Disadvantages (or, as discussed below, the appropriate expenditure of Experience Points). So, if you try to build a form that’s too powerful, you may find you can’t afford it.

Second, GM discretion and campaign balance comes into play. It’s the GM’s responsibility to review questionable or potentially unbalancing powers and determine whether he wants to let them into his game. A GM is well within his rights to say, “This Multiform is built on too many points; scale it back or get rid of it.” The freedom the HERO System offers requires players to use it maturely and reasonably, and GMs to oversee their use of it responsibly and reasonably, or else everyone’s enjoyment of the game suffers. With great power comes great responsibility.

[Killer Shrike]

Powers FAQ

Q: If I buy a Multiform where the alternate form is built with no more than the standard Base Points for the campaign, do I have to take any Disadvantages for that form?


A: No. As the text notes, the alternate form provided by a Multiform is built on the same Base Points as the true form. Then you have to justify additional points with Disadvantages (or, as discussed elsewhere in this FAQ, through the expenditure of Experience Points).

Assuming you’re in a 200 Base + 150 Disadvantages campaign, the true form is built with 200 Base Points, plus up to 150 Disadvantages. He doesn’t have to take any Disadvantages if he doesn’t want to — he could just be a 200-point character — but of course most characters do have Disadvantages.

Never mind; I just went back and reread the entry that I was recalling and see that it's just restating the obvious for the TRUE form and not actually saying anything new about the alternate forms. Disregard....