Making a Murderer

[GCMorris]

I'm building an old school Jack the Ripper style non powered murderer (he is in fact Jack the Ripper) and I'm wondering how to make him a challenge for my "out of time" Victorian Era group. I've decided to make him a genius (perhaps even Moriarty himself) but I don't know how he will hold up in battle. I'm actually making a Sinister Six of my own Pulp era type villains. This group is 4e 250 point characters.

 

Thanks for any input.

[steriaca]

Jack should have skill with a knife. Enough skill to make really painful stabs which are not imedeantly kill a victim (until blood loss and orgin harvesting does it for them). Jack should ok know the old Victorian sewer system of London quite well.

 

Beyond that, he should be whatever you need him to be

[Cantriped]

For In Combat effectiveness without resorting to obvious Powers, your options are mostly limited to Combat Skills (such as Martial Arts), and unusual Equipment (especially sharp knives, deadly poisons, gadgets, etc.). I don't own any 4th edition sourcebooks, so I can't really help you much with builds.

 

If the goal is for him to be a sneaky murderer who is good at escaping capture, Stealth and Shadowing are must-haves, as is a high DCV and Initiative for his point-level (so high Dex). He should probably also have an appropriate level of Cockroach Durability (High Con, PD/ED, BODY, and STUN).

[Nothere]

I'm with Cantriped. I don't know what martialarts info you have, but I would give him one. Is combat luck available? Also you might want to consider how you defining "powers". Jack can't fire energy beams from his eyes, but the pulp and dark champions books have a special set of "skills" that use powers to mimic the sometimes inhuman feats pulp and dark types can accomplish.

 

A couple Jack could use without everything in case your not interested.

 

Awe inspiring +20 pre to make precence attacks 13

 

Choking grasp 3d6 eb nnd doesn't work on hard neck covering,ff, or self contained breathing 30

 

Compulsion mind control 8d6 incantations. The character is so impressive people tend to obey them 20

 

Disquieting area -4 to resist pre roll. The character can be very intimidating 20

 

Can take a punch pd reduction 50% must make a skill roll and be aware of the attack 20

 

Or just buy him a really high con

[Nothere]

Oh almost forgot are the heros still Constable Thomas Murphy, Wilbur Watson, Padre Jorge, Wallace Crackpot, Pauline Montgomery, and Sir Milton Pepperbottom?

[GCMorris]

Combat Luck is available as is Find Weakness. Martial Arts packages like Dirty Infighting are there. I'll try to look up those 4e supplements on eBay.

 

Thanks

[death tribble]

Cantriped and Nothere have covered the main bases.

The main problem you may have is if The Ripper is unmasked, why is he doing it ? Single murders are understandable i.e. the guard killed in a struggle with the gang, the husband/wife killing her unfaithful spouse but the Ripper killed five on four separate occasions. You could use Agatha Christie's ABC murders whereby the killer has a motive to murder one person and kills others to make it look like the work of a lunatic. Also bear in mind British law at the time. If one person in a gang kills someone the entire gang can be held responsible and hanged as a result 

[GCMorris]

Is Find Weakness the best way to simulate the Backstab ability from D&D?

[Tom Cowan]

Find Weakness for armored targets, HKA with limits like only on out of combat or unaware targets for less armored targets 

[Cantriped]

Is Find Weakness the best way to simulate the Backstab ability from D&D?

Thematically, "Backstab" as it existed in AD&D can be an appropriate special effect for Find Weakness, but the mechanics aren't quite the same.

In later editions, Backstab was represented by a Talent called Deadly Blow (Usually associated with Fantasy Hero) that added DCs to the attack under specific circumstances. In terms of pricing, Deadly Blow was built as a stack of Combat Skill Levels which were Limited (Only To Add To Damage), and Conditional (Only Versus Dwarves, Only At Night, Only When Making A Surprise Attack, etc).

[GCMorris]

Ah. Thank you very much. That gives me a good idea.

[Steve]

Even a non-powered character could have high STR and CON, perhaps expressed as a result of berserk rage or some kind of drug concoction. A Jeckyl & Hyde type could make it harder for them to figure out what's going on. That quiet pharmacist is the murderer?

 

If you make it a drug, they could be giving it to test subjects as they perfect it. The final version of the drug is then used by the creator.

 

You could also make the villain female with a very good Disguise skill. Moriarty/Jack done as a woman gives a new spin on a familiar character that could surprise PCs.

[Nothere]

As this is a comics forum Janice Foswell replaced her father as the BigMan

[TheQuestionMan]

Jack the Ripper from the Original Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold". The dark spirit moving from body to body.

[steriaca]

Jack the Ripper was Jonathan Jostar's first foe after he started to learn Harmon. Of course, Jack was made into a 'zombie' by Dio Brando.

 

(If you need to know, I'm taking about the manga/anime series Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood).

[freakboy6117]

I was going to suggest find weakness or ocv levels to represent Anatomical skill as Jack the ripper is supposed to be a doctor or other skilled anatomist.

 

If you did want to give him a super human upgrade perhaps The from hell line in his name means he's secretly a member of some Victorian Hellfire club predecessor of DEMON.

 

You can always give him a potent man servant a huge lumbering coach driver.

[Nothere]

The lumbering carriage driver is an easy one. But if you want to give him help and go radical, theres always the he's part of a secret society covering up royals dalling with prostitutes theory.

[Spence]

Jack the Ripper from the Original Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold". The dark spirit moving from body to body.

 

The ? brings up a very good point.

Why would Jake even fight, at least in a conventional sense?  If the idea of Jack being non-corporal and 'possessing' someone else to interact with people.  How about possessing hypnotic or mind control?  Not a direct take charge of a persons mind, but one of suggestion.  Really really powerful suggestion to the point a Hero might suddenly not remember even seeing Jack or suddenly find an uncontrollable need to protect his friend Jack from those evil Hero's. 

[Heroic Halfwit]

I hesitate to suggest this, but would Jack the Ripper ever be a combat fighter with player characters in the first place?  I say this, because as I have understood the character of Jack, he would not be terribly interested in going toe to toe with law enforcement or a vigilante.  He would be far more likely to taunt, evade and frustrate such figures than confront them directly.  For such a Jack, combat success would be concentrated upon achieving the murderous objective, e.g. killing the murder target, and getting away.  Again, only from my prejudice, but Jack doesn't seem like the kind of person who would take a fair fight or even an open combat heavily stacked in his favor.  I would think that he gets his jollies out of executing his crimes and getting away with it, taunting the police and civil society with his ability to strike at will without consequence.

 

With that in mind, I would concentrate on abilities and tactics which would allow Jack to avoid the confrontation or escape from it quickly and easily even ironically.  I could see a Jack with an investment in Acting and Disguise skills who might linger at the site of one of his crimes and work as a false witness reveling in proving his intellectual and moral superiority over the bumbling player characters.  I could even see such a character creating elaborate "rules of the game" like never telling the player characters an out right falsehood, but cleverly crafting his disclosures to lead them to false conclusions.

 

A multiple personality disorder with amnestic features might be appropriate and devilishly difficult to track down, if "the Ripper" personality is supplanted by the dominant "Jack" personality with full or partial amnesia after killing and reaching a place of repose.  A full physical multiform would be even more difficult to track down.

 

To specific recommendations, I would look at increased running and leaping, acrobatics, breakfall, nightvision, perception skill levels to deal with fog, acute hearing and/or spatial awareness to help detect oncoming witnesses or combatants and melt away and hide before being perceived.  Then age old pursuit impediments like caltrops, smoke grenades, stink bombs, flash paper, etc. etc.  

[GCMorris]

While he isn't interested in going to to toe (he's a stealthy serial killer) he has the means to defend himself if hard pressed to do so.

[death tribble]

On a side point isn't making a murderer what got Doctor Frankenstein intro trouble in the first place ? 

[Lucius]

On a side point isn't making a murderer what got Doctor Frankenstein intro trouble in the first place ?

No, but when the Creature kills Frankenstein at the end, that is murdering a maker.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says that what got Frankenstein in trouble was creating a living and essentially Human being, and then abandoning him.