Foxiekins Posted August 25, 2022 Report Share Posted August 25, 2022 I would like to hear what people think of this Doctor... I made him up on the spur of the moment, for a one-off Adventure that I did years ago, but the idea for the character just won't go away... Mainly, I think, because there is just so much about this character that feels right... This is an experienced character, at 20 points of experience, but shaving 20 points would let him be built at 400 points... The easiest way to do that would be to reduce the points for his bases and followers... I laid out 100 points for the cost of a Base, and gave him 64 of them, so lots of opportunity for point shaving there... Also, he has this many followers so he can have 33 Agents at the base he's currently using, another 33 at a fallback position, just in case, and one Agent at each of the other 62 Bases just holding position... This lets him have bases just about anywhere, or multiple locations in your campaign area, increasing his utility... If you have players with a fixation on destroying the Villain's base at all costs, that's fine, that's why Doc Monolith has so many... I refer to his base as The Dome, because the original idea was for every base to be identical, and housed in a Monolithic Dome, which is an actual thing, just google it... The Doctor has two main things he does... The surveillance in his bases is designed to get readings from any Metanormals entering them, to provide data for his ongoing study of Metanormal Physiology... This data is potentially marketable to player's enemies, although he will not release information that would directly compromise secret identities or the like... But he isn't above tipping opponents off about discovered weaknesses or vulnerabilities unless doing so would come into conflict with his Code versus Killing... He does NOT like Casual Killers at all... He also provides Medical Services to folk on the wrong side of the law, hero or villain... He is very bitter that his condition has prevented him from from being useful to society... The players may find him useful though, and who knows? If they can pull enough strings and are persuasive enough, the good Doctor might be won over to their side... The possibility of that depends on the GM and PCs, of course... The only people that would initially know the Doctor even exists, at first, would be the Doctors and Administrators that were present when his Metanormality manifested itself, which unfortunately was during his first interview for placement with a Hospital, and any of them that turned him down afterwards, until he gave up in disgust... His ability to teleport was the result of his investigation into just *where* his extra mass came from when he manifested... He keeps it secret because it's useful to have an ace in the hole, and because his investigations have proved uncomfortable and painful... He stopped trying to determine just how *far* he can teleport, when it reached the point of being agonizingly painful, so he's not sure what his max range is, given that trying to teleport more than 20 meters subjects him to 1d6 STUN for every couple of meters more, up to a max (unknown to him) of 40d6... The Doctor isn't sure if he could actually kill himself this way, or not, and doesn't want to find out... This is the kind of thing he would only do if the Survival of the Entire Human Race, or a large portion of it, were at stake... Doctor Monolith.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted August 25, 2022 Report Share Posted August 25, 2022 He needs more Growth. Teleportation is intresting. A teleporting, growing brick. Mastermind potential. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted August 25, 2022 Report Share Posted August 25, 2022 I like the concept but I would ask a few questions about his background. He probably needs a greater level of wealth and should have had it before his powers manifested. Also why can't he be employed by a government organization? Something like DOSPA, Primus or Until would welcome a Super who's also an accomplished metahuman researcher or the likes of VIPER if he's naturally inclined against society. Power wise, he's lacks a little offensive oomph. I'd bump him up to a 10 DC attack with maybe some type of 8 DC AVLD based on his research. He doesn't need to be much tougher if his agents are enough of a threat to demand attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted August 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2022 3 hours ago, steriaca said: He needs more Growth. Teleportation is intresting. A teleporting, growing brick. Mastermind potential. He doesn't grow, he's that large all the time... That's why I only went with one Level of Size... He doesn't have a punishment agenda, he's just annoyed at society... Make charges, though, if he'd be more useful to you that way... One thing you could do is have a teleportation gate at the center of each of his bases, that only works with another teleportation gate in the network... If you do, though, I would also give him the Inventor skill, and also Physics, or at least Weird Science... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted August 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2022 3 hours ago, Grailknight said: I like the concept but I would ask a few questions about his background. He probably needs a greater level of wealth and should have had it before his powers manifested. Also why can't he be employed by a government organization? Something like DOSPA, Primus or Until would welcome a Super who's also an accomplished metahuman researcher or the likes of VIPER if he's naturally inclined against society. Power wise, he's lacks a little offensive oomph. I'd bump him up to a 10 DC attack with maybe some type of 8 DC AVLD based on his research. He doesn't need to be much tougher if his agents are enough of a threat to demand attention. He could easily have had the Wealth before he manifested, it would explain how he was able to afford all that Education... If you feel he needs more Wealth, and want to use him, it's easily added... VIPER could easily be amongst his clients, but I feel he would avoid a closer relationship because they might want to dictate who he does and doesn't treat... That's HIS choice to make, not an organization... He would not work with anyone that demanded he disregard what remains of his Hippocratic Oath... And if you think he needs 10 Damage Classes, that's only 10 points away... But remember, it only takes a Haymaker for him to have 12 Damage Classes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted August 26, 2022 Report Share Posted August 26, 2022 5 hours ago, Foxiekins said: He doesn't grow, he's that large all the time... That's why I only went with one Level of Size... He doesn't have a punishment agenda, he's just annoyed at society... Make charges, though, if he'd be more useful to you that way... One thing you could do is have a teleportation gate at the center of each of his bases, that only works with another teleportation gate in the network... If you do, though, I would also give him the Inventor skill, and also Physics, or at least Weird Science... He should grow. Also, current rules say you don't buy Growth to make a character big all the time. Just buy what you like and a Physical Complication for being big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted August 26, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2022 3 hours ago, steriaca said: He should grow. Also, current rules say you don't buy Growth to make a character big all the time. Just buy what you like and a Physical Complication for being big. Right, he's big all the time... That's why I bought all the stuff that comes with 1 level of Growth, which I referred to as a level of Size, to try and avoid confusing it with Growth... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted August 30, 2022 Report Share Posted August 30, 2022 Unless Doctor Monolith is intended for a very low-power supers campaign, he is not combat-capable. Even in a low-power (10 DC) Champions campaign, 15 PD and 15 CON means that mot attacks will stun him. Conversely, 8 DC from his punch will not make him a credible threat to most heroes. As it stands, the only way I see for him to function in a campaign is as a slippery mastermind, in which the challenge for PCs is to find him and corner him so he can't get away. Perhaps that is your intent, what with all the points in agent Followers and a large number of Bases. In that case, though, he needs more than basic Teleportation to get away -- at the very least, a Fixed Point enabling a safe blind teleport to the long-range Teleport Gate in a secure part of each Base. (Which is a good justification for each Base being absolutely identical: One fixed point will do for all the Bases!) Doctor Monolith's motivation for villainy seems feeble to me, but whatever. The DC character Rainbow Raider became a supervillain out of bitterness at being color-blind. (He wanted to be an artist. It is apparently lost on him that many great artists worked in black and white. Silver Age villains, <shrug>.) Building scads of Bases and maintaining lots of agent Followers usually requires a lot of resources. How does Doctor Monolith obtain them? You say he constructs his Monolith Domes with sensors to gather data about heroes, which he then sells to other villains and organizations. That is interesting. Does he have any regular backers, who helped him build all those Bases in the first place and supplied the agents? If so, he should probably have them as Contacts, or -- if the power relationship is less amicable -- he's Watched by them. Summing up, it seems the core idea here is that whatever criminal activities Doctor Monolith and his agents perform, these are just lures to draw heroes to one of his Bases. The heroes assault the Bases, possibly destroy it and capture the agents, and think they have thwarted a supervillain's nefarious plan. The villain got away but still, a decent bit of heroing. Only if they search the Base in detail do they find all the sensors and realize they've been played. That is a good premise for a villain, but I think you need to do more work on fleshing out the details of how Doctor Monolith operates. Dean Shomshak assault 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted September 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 On 8/30/2022 at 12:49 PM, DShomshak said: Unless Doctor Monolith is intended for a very low-power supers campaign, he is not combat-capable. Even in a low-power (10 DC) Champions campaign, 15 PD and 15 CON means that mot attacks will stun him. Conversely, 8 DC from his punch will not make him a credible threat to most heroes. As it stands, the only way I see for him to function in a campaign is as a slippery mastermind, in which the challenge for PCs is to find him and corner him so he can't get away. Perhaps that is your intent, what with all the points in agent Followers and a large number of Bases. In that case, though, he needs more than basic Teleportation to get away -- at the very least, a Fixed Point enabling a safe blind teleport to the long-range Teleport Gate in a secure part of each Base. (Which is a good justification for each Base being absolutely identical: One fixed point will do for all the Bases!) Doctor Monolith's motivation for villainy seems feeble to me, but whatever. The DC character Rainbow Raider became a supervillain out of bitterness at being color-blind. (He wanted to be an artist. It is apparently lost on him that many great artists worked in black and white. Silver Age villains, <shrug>.) Building scads of Bases and maintaining lots of agent Followers usually requires a lot of resources. How does Doctor Monolith obtain them? You say he constructs his Monolith Domes with sensors to gather data about heroes, which he then sells to other villains and organizations. That is interesting. Does he have any regular backers, who helped him build all those Bases in the first place and supplied the agents? If so, he should probably have them as Contacts, or -- if the power relationship is less amicable -- he's Watched by them. Summing up, it seems the core idea here is that whatever criminal activities Doctor Monolith and his agents perform, these are just lures to draw heroes to one of his Bases. The heroes assault the Bases, possibly destroy it and capture the agents, and think they have thwarted a supervillain's nefarious plan. The villain got away but still, a decent bit of heroing. Only if they search the Base in detail do they find all the sensors and realize they've been played. That is a good premise for a villain, but I think you need to do more work on fleshing out the details of how Doctor Monolith operates. Dean Shomshak He's intended for a standard 400 point campaign... I appreciate your analysis... I asked about point totals and balancing in another thread, and so far the best answer seems to be "Design the Villain and Assign him the Experience he Requires"... Doctor Monolith was from 5th Edition, and unfortunately I lost his information, and am trying to recreate him in 6th Edition from Memory... Anecdote: I also have GMed the Ironclaw game, which is about Medieval Anthropomorphic Animals, and one Villain provided an experience I was trying to draw from in creating Doctor Monolith... The game had Mind Mages, who are built for intrigue and sneakiness... I made a particular Mind Mage a Rhinoceros, and when the PCs finally ran him to ground, they started with the stabbing... In Ironclaw, Rhinos take a LOT of stabbing, to be honest... And the player starting going "He won't Die... HE WON'T DIE...!!!" It struck me as so hilarious that I tried to design the Doctor so that he was sneaky, devious, and slippery, but if you ever did run him to ground then he's surprisingly durable... So I will definitely be applying your suggestions... The good Doctor's mentality will shed some light... He's researching meta-normal physiology to ultimately try and return himself to normal... It might be in his best interest to cooperate with others, but he's so contemptuous of other's abilities that the idea of someone else being helpful and useful is completely foreign to him... Frankly, this attitude is the real reason why no one would hire him, but he's latched onto his physical condition as a scapegoat, and is trying to fix it... If he ever DOES cure himself, God help him, because he's still unemployable, and he'll have no clue why... Since cooperation is such a foreign notion to him, everything he does is focused on FORCING others to meet his needs... And his best source for data is other meta-normals, whether hero or villain... He provides medical services to villains, not out of benevolence, but because it benefits him, and his bedside manner is atrocious... But villains frequently can't be choosers... He *has* taken the Hippocratic Oath, not out of kindness, but more out of a particularly obnoxious example of Noblesse Oblige... If you watched Big Bang Theory at all, think of him like unto Sheldon Cooper... As I make modifications, I'll be putting details... I would appreciate any other ideas that occur to you, and thank you for what you've suggested already, all of you... Scott Ruggels 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted September 4, 2022 Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 A good thing for Doctor Monolith is to have a high PRE and interaction skills like Intimidate. You can't basically bully people to work for you without the stick. Of course, Doctor Monolith also can do the carrot method, but the 'reward' might be 'I won't hurt you for a failure right now...'. Which might not be much of a motivation for some henchmen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted September 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 6 hours ago, steriaca said: A good thing for Doctor Monolith is to have a high PRE and interaction skills like Intimidate. You can't basically bully people to work for you without the stick. Of course, Doctor Monolith also can do the carrot method, but the 'reward' might be 'I won't hurt you for a failure right now...'. Which might not be much of a motivation for some henchmen. You're right... He should have had a high PRE before... Going with a 20, adding the +5 for his size category gives him 25 PRE... He already had Bureaucratics and Streetwise... I gave him Charm, but in retrospect that doesn't seem right, so I'm replacing it with Interrogation and Persuasion... And I can *totally* see his henchmen being open to helping the heroes, as long as it helps them, and Doc doesn't find out... I don't think Doc would threaten his henchmen, though... What he'd do is callously analyze their shortcomings to death, and persuade them to do things *his* way... Because, of course, He's always right, and other people really can't help it if they have substandard Intellect... Note that standard Intellect is a tiny group, including him, that he begrudgingly offers admittance to after many demonstrations of excellence, and substandard Intellect, by definition, is everyone else on Earth... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted September 9, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2022 Okay, I think I have him done... Can anyone think of anything I've overlooked...? Doctor Monolith.pdf Dome Agents.pdf The Dome.RTF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted September 9, 2022 Report Share Posted September 9, 2022 Looks good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.