Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

[Katherine]

(Thanks to Doug Macrae for the character ideas!) Assume these characters are made on world beater levels.(estimated 900-1000+ pts) They have effectively taken over their world and have access to global resources and can easily handle modern military forces so they aren't pansies. They act as a team and cover each other combat. They also have NOTHING agianst using lethal force (very Authority like).

 

Ocean- Ocean is a telepath to the Nth power, a 'hyperpath'. Drawing on the thoughts and memories of the entire human race he has the skills of the world's greatest experts, is a martial artist par excellence and knows what the PCs are going to do before they do (by accessing their subconscious minds).

 

The Soldier - Genetically modified by a secret government project to be the perfect killing machine. Soldier has a battery of biological enhancements inspired by the animal kingdom. She has the vision of an eagle, the sense of smell of a bloodhound, a whole range of extra senses, enhanced strength and speed, electrical discharges, box jellyfish venom, a limited shapeshift ability similar to an octopus and so forth.

 

Adam Farpoint - A quantum computer AI, Adam's consciousness controls a variety of robotic bodies of his own design. None are humanoid, but resemble the animal-like constructions in the Matrix.

 

Gaea - A powerful psychic/mystic with control over natural phenomena such as earthquakes and the weather, Gaea is a devout pagan who believes herself to be the avatar of the earth mother. An extreme environmentalist she seeks to put an end to pollution, preserve biodiversity and prevent global warming.

 

Lure - Lure is a bizarre looking humanoid resembling a deep sea fish. He has a large mouth filled with enormous teeth, whip-like filaments and bioluminescent patches. He is a representative of an ancient species that dwells on the ocean floor and predates human civilisation by tens of thousands of years. Wearing a protective suit to survive the low pressure environment on the surface, the equivalent of power armour, Lure wields a variety of advanced gadgets.

 

Fortress - Composed of neutron star material, Fortress is practically indestructible and very strong. (Superman, post crisis)

 

Shift- Capable of accessing the other membranes (dimensions) predicted by M-Theory, Shift can transpose locations in our universe with those in another. By selecting specific worlds she can alter the laws of physics in a limited area. For example she could control gravity, making it weaker or far stronger or change the strength of the forces holding atoms together, with catastrophic consequences.

[JmOz]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Bowman: Bend over and kiss his ass good bye, he would probably go down shooting, but in the end he would go down...

[Zeropoint]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Seeing as how they have a high-level telepath, Special Agent Trent would take one of two approaches: 1) stay as far away as possible, or 2) fold like a wet paper bag.

 

Zeropoint

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Flippant: Either go live in another dimension, _permanently_... or get lucky and find someone who can whup their asses.

 

Any other PC I've ever written up: Lose. Horribly. Even all of them put together.

 

(Okay, that 1k pter I wrote up on a whim for the boards _might_ have a shot... if he KO'd the mage before they hit him)

[ChuckB]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

If things really got bad...

 

Enigma (super-espionage type) would (regrettably) try to find the friends and loved ones of these guys, kidnap them and have his secret organization hide them somewhere that he doesn't know about, and inform the Authority-types that their DNPCs will be slowly tortured to death if they don't stand down.

[SKJAM!]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

(Thanks to Doug Macrae for the character ideas!) Assume these characters are made on world beater levels.(estimated 900-1000+ pts) They have effectively taken over their world and have access to global resources and can easily handle modern military forces so they aren't pansies. They act as a team and cover each other combat. They also have NOTHING agianst using lethal force (very Authority like).

 

The only ones Talion couldn't take are Adam Farpoint and possibly the neutron star matter guy.

 

Every other character would be more or less completely useless against these folks.

 

 

SKJAM!

[OddHat]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Very tough group.

 

Style - Powerful and tactically sound master magician. Would find all of them easy to take down, with the exceptions of Ocean and Gaea, who would likely be able to counter his best attacks. Might cheat by taking them on from Astral space, but even there it would be a challenge. Might turn them against one another, so long as he knew enough about Ocean to separate his own mind from the mass of humanity.

 

AnimeGai - All save Lure and Ocean are serious threats to an AI inside of a hologram. He might be able to take out one before going down. Adam Farpoint would be the biggest threat, as he sounds like a similar character with more raw power.

 

Flesh Gordon - Would hit on Soldier, Shift and Gaea untill noticing his team mates were down. Almost impossible to kill or seriously hurt, but mostly useless here.

 

Thirteen - Almost on their power level. A serious threat to any of them, no match against all at once (but that's what teams are for). Would have the toughest time with Gaea; given time to study has a range of super skills to take out or nullify the rest.

 

Indomitable Will - "Nothing stands in the way of social progress! Repent, capitalist foes of the common man, or taste my justice!" Might win in a one on one confrontation with any of them; he is on this power level. On the other hand, if Ocean is clever enough he might turn Will's own team mates against him; team work would let them take him out as well, or good tactics.

 

Again, tough looking group.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Only real serious way any of my characters could likely take these guys down would be by turning them against each other/themselves.

 

Convince Gaea that the other teammates are bad for the planet: Shift changing the laws of physics. Lure's race is bad for the planet. Eventually Adam Farpoint will decide to get rid of biology. Ocean has access to all the world's scientific knowledge and hasn't solved pollution yet?

 

Have our team mystics or techs work out a way to neutralize Ocean. When he accesses one of us, he gets hooked into ONLY that person, losing most of his knowledge/ability. Or gets hit w/a major mental attack/mind control to "see only our POV" and turn on his team.

 

Some way to shut Farpoint down/trap him in current body/trap current body.

 

Soldier - enough tranquilizers to drop a herd of Brontosaurs. Twice.

 

Then still get the &*$# kicked out of us.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Adam Farpoint - A quantum computer AI, Adam's consciousness controls a variety of robotic bodies of his own design. None are humanoid, but resemble the animal-like constructions in the Matrix.

Disabled in one phase. I'd use my recently added EMP Explosion (20d6 Dispel Electronics, Explosion -1 DC / 2", SE) 60 Active Points removed from all of his powers in a single round. I'd probably do this and help take down one of the others with my teammates before putting in a couple blows to disable it completely.

[Katherine]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Disabled in one phase. I'd use my recently added EMP Explosion (20d6 Dispel Electronics' date=' Explosion -1 DC / 2", SE) 60 Active Points removed from all of his powers in a single round. I'd probably do this and help take down one of the others with my teammates before putting in a couple blows to disable it completely.[/quote']

 

I don't think it would be as easy as that. He's an advanced quantum computer a few hundred years more advanced than anything we can imagine now. I'd assume he has a decent level of "EMP Sheilding" (Power Defense and Difficult to Dispel) if he doesn't his -next- body most surely will. I'm not a tactical genius (By any stretch of the imagination) but I'd at least give him seome Power Defense.

 

The impression I'm getting is that these guys might be too tough and I should give them some weaknesses or make them easy to split up and turn against each other?

[Doug McCrae]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Glad you liked them, Katherine!

 

They were meant to be badasses, like the Authority but it should be fairly easy to weaken them for a given group by either:

A) Reducing the number of villains, or

Weakening their powers. For example Ocean could be a less powerful telepath, Soldier might have fewer/lesser animal powers, Fortress could be very dense but not nearly at neutron star level, etc.

[OddHat]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

The impression I'm getting is that these guys might be too tough and I should give them some weaknesses or make them easy to split up and turn against each other?

 

Depends on your players. The only one that is a true nightmare is Ocean; as long as he is coordinating the others, and aware of everything your players are planning to do, they have no chance.

 

The best way to handle this might be either to only play this group off against very tough characters, or to make the gang absurdly arogant. Let them roll over your players but not kill them the first time so that the players know what they're up against. Maybe the Star Chamber has no wish to kill even misguided heroes, this time. Let your players figure out a strategy to take Ocean out of the picture, and to take them on one at a time. In a massed battle your players will still be out matched, but one at a time these guys can be taken out.

 

And your players can always go to Menton or Doctor Destroyer for a little help...

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

I'm also using a 407 point character against a 1000 point character. This power would knock Mechanon's 90 point primary weapon array to 42 points. It isn't enough to disable it, but it would make him feel the difference.

[Acroyear]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

I'd actually call some of them lightweights, myself. With the old team that would be able to handle threats like this, only Shift, Adam Farpoint and Fortress would be the ones to give us trouble but don't sound beyond defeat, two of them (Ocean and Lure) would be toast almost instantly. Actually, Ocean might not even be able to come into being to begin with (dead shortly after his power manifests). The others are kind of par for the course.

 

It's probably more important to share the types of characters they'd be facing so you can build in the necessary flaws for them to be overcome.

[Gary]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

I'm also using a 407 point character against a 1000 point character. This power would knock Mechanon's 90 point primary weapon array to 42 points. It isn't enough to disable it' date=' but it would make him feel the difference.[/quote']

 

 

Actually, Dispel is all or nothing. Either it completely takes out the other power, or it does nothing. So if the target's power + power defense is greater than 70 or so, your attack is going to be worthless.

 

Also, your attack seems very expensive for a 407 pt character. 20d6 dispel is 60 active points with (+2) vs all electronics and (+3/4) explosion, that's 225 Active points! And 22 End per shot.

[nexus]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

I can't think of much off hand. Most of my character would be so far out of this league they may as well be playing a different game.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Then of course there's the option of finding their alternate-universe versions, bringing them over to fight them, and sitting back with the popcorn to watch.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Microman II would not even consider trying to deal with them without caling in all the rest of the Sentinels. Once gathered, we could probably deal with them, but it'd require cleverness and splitting their attention.

[Chuckg]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

You do have one advantage -- as a member of the Machine class of minds, you and your thoughts are invisible to Ocean. So you can remove him from the playing field right off the bat.

 

Bloody hell, I just realized -- Starguard's invisible to him too. (Invisibility vs. Mental Sense Group, No Fringe, 0 END Persistent, Always On -- I can't be Mind Scanned or telepathically attacked unless the telepath in question has first perceived me with another targeting sense.)

[Metaphysician]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Actually, that was one element I had been thinking about more. Is Ocean's hyperpathy detectable by Mental Awareness, and is it applicable to humans only??

 

If its only access to the human collective unconscious, than more than half the team is invisible to him. And if its detectable by Mental Awareness, than Warmaster Fielan can presumably shield the rest of us, at least, and possible insert fake information via it.

[OddHat]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Ocean would definitely be the most difficult to deal with threat for all of my PCs save AnimeGai. With a group this powerful, separating and surprising them is the tactic most likely to succeed, and a "hyperpath" makes that much harder. Your group needs a good VPP artist with the ability to "hide" the team and/or non-human minds to get around it.

[Chuckg]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Meta -- you're right.

 

Our team has one robot, one demigod, two humans, and two aliens (one extradimensional).

 

Horus might be vulnerable, as he's mixed humane/divine blood. One of the humans (Starguard) is mentally invisible. The other one is Warp. Cyrande and the Warmaster are both totally non-human.

 

Heck... how penetrating is Ocean's hyperpathy? Is it blocked by Mental Defense? If so, *none* of the New Sentinels can be seen by him -- Horus and Warp both have Mental Defense.

[PoorWandering 1]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

The only option i can think of is "lets you and him fight". With this kind of power they have to have enemies. Find them, lead them here, aid the survivors. Of course something like ocean will allready have thought of and countered this. Ultimately the only option may be to agree with them and hope they get bored. It would all depend on what they want. So what do they want?

[Katherine]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Glad you liked them, Katherine!

 

Oh yeah, they are much better than anything I could have come up with. I just need to flesh out their mechanics (Pray for me) and come up with good personalities. I see Ocean as the leader and visionary of the group and as sort of much more militant Xavier. He likely built/activated Adam Farpoint, contacted Lure and Gaia, freed Solider from military, etc. With his power to know just what you want to hear he could be very charismatic.

 

I'm also using a 407 point character against a 1000 point character. This power would knock Mechanon's 90 point primary weapon array to 42 points. It isn't enough to disable it, but it would make him feel the difference.

 

I was just pointing out it probably wouldn’t be that easy to disable Adam in phase with a single big and direct attack. He’s smarter than that and if such a obvious vulnerability existed his previous enemies which included several world governments would have exploited it by now. I don’t think the attack would do nothing it might be bake some of his lesser systems on a good roll, but I don’t think Farpoint would be disabled in a phase by it.

 

I'd actually call some of them lightweights, myself. With the old team that would be able to handle threats like this, only Shift, Adam Farpoint and Fortress would be the ones to give us trouble but don't sound beyond defeat, two of them (Ocean and Lure) would be toast almost instantly. Actually, Ocean might not even be able to come into being to begin with (dead shortly after his power manifests). The others are kind of par for the course.

 

Wow, that is really impressive if these guys are light weights in your world. Why would Ocean and Lure be toast instantly? I’m going to give them exceptional combat abilities based on their powers and Lure will have scads of weird alien technology in its suit.

 

Heck... how penetrating is Ocean's hyperpathy? Is it blocked by Mental Defense? If so, *none* of the New Sentinels can be seen by him -- Horus and Warp both have Mental Defense.

 

Having access to the universal subconscious was going to be mainly a special effect of his high Int, Per, and long, long skill lists. He may also have a small VPP for skills/super skills and a Precog limited to what human beings will do/think. Hyperpathy I was going to build as NND vs not being human telepathy with area of effect to varying degrees, but the deeper and more completely he wanted to probe the more he’d have to focus on a single target.

 

The only option i can think of is "lets you and him fight". With this kind of power they have to have enemies. Find them, lead them here, aid the survivors. Of course something like ocean will already have thought of and countered this. Ultimately the only option may be to agree with them and hope they get bored. It would all depend on what they want. So what do they want?

 

They want (and have in part achieved) nothing less than to RULE THE WORLD. Ocean believes that, given the current ideologies and mindset of humanity, that society is due for a meltdown that is going to take the entire planet with it. Wasteful, cruel, violent and without restraint, humans are like children playing with deadly weapons and superior beings need to step in and guide them regardless if they want it or not, by any means necessary for in the end the greater good will be served. The Star Chamber was formed to be the governing body of a new world order that will sweep away the flawed old world and create a utopia on the ashes on the old. If you are not with them, you are against them. That which does not change, dies, etc etc.

 

At game start, the Chamber will control several formerly third world (and most fictional) countries and have pretty vast resources. Lure’s people are a practical hive mind and can provide troops and all sorts of bizarre technologies. Exactly why it works with Ocean isn’t know, but its claims it simply does not want to see the planet destroyed. Ocean can’t see into its mind, but believes his vision is great, so pure that any rationale being would agree with it. Gaea wishes to impose a technological moratorium on most “advanced†technologies until they can be made completely non polluting and is the hot head of the group. She joins the Chamber as she shares most of Ocean’s vision and despises the modern world. Soldier’s reason for joining is mainly out of gratitude for her freedom and an honest desire to see a better world. She’s seen the worst of humanity and now really hungers to be a force for positive change. Fortress and Shift are brother and sister mutants torn from their families to be used as living weapons and experiments. Ocean freed them and offered them a greater purpose. He also flattered their egos. Both of them are somewhat childish in nature and taking this opportunity to lash out a world that hurt them horribly.

[Acroyear]

Re: Tactical Question: How would your characters deal with these villians?

 

Wow' date=' that is really impressive if these guys are light weights in your world. Why would Ocean and Lure be toast instantly? I’m going to give them exceptional combat abilities based on their powers and Lure will have scads of weird alien technology in its suit. [/quote']

 

Well, for one, they aren't built on considerably more points than most of the players and they are built on less points than others.

 

By SFX, Ocean would like be taking a mental damage shield (which does body and had a few levels of penetrating on it) from one character who is an "entity" of omnidimensional sorts - an overload of information on multiple planes and the sheer "alien-ness" of the mind. Mental conact with her is... traumatic at best. If Ocean's power is always on, he can't break contact and won't survive long (unless there are mutliple levels of hardened on the mental def). In addition, this character only exists in the present "monopresent" so you can't determine what her future actions would be (invisibility to pre and retrocognitive powers, etc).

 

Beyond that, assuming there is no actual mental contact, this scary character has 100+ int (don't remember, maybe KawangaKid does) and a ginormous skill list, too. So you're looking at master vs master in that dept, but the hero's skills include sorcery and dimensional manipulation (hi, Shift), as well as the martial arts and all that. And that's not even everything yet. She's gross, imo.

 

Lure, being a "sea" critter, is pretty much doomed by falling under the dominion of the water elemental character. You can get lots of points into powers when you have lims like "only vs aqautic life" and/or "only under water." The latter is known to some for boosting her already impressive hydrokinetic abilities, but the former is one of those "rarely used but unbelievably powerful" sets of powers situations. The gadgets might help, but if the being in the armor is dominated... well....

 

Gaea has a problem with the weather control (the above mentioned character) and that one of the characters kind of even trumps her from time to time. So her weather and earthquakes powers would come into contest with two heroes. Even if Gaea is more potent here, she's looking at diminished returns for the effort.

 

...So, anyway, this is why I said it's just as important to look at who they are facing to build in the necessary flaws. In my case, a couple members are stepping in with powers in direct contact with "focused specialties" that put them at a disadvantage.

 

Now if I was looking at the younger team, it boils more down to how big the attacks and defenses are, because sometimes all you have is the ability to shoot lasers out of your eyes, you know?