Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

[Kitsune]

This started many years ago when I was in college. A couple of us were up late at the Sunshine Caffe and we were discussing power gaming and we decided to create the ultimate abusive character. The result was Captian Brick.... he actually claimed himself as a focus, most of his powers had the limitation "only when thrown" and he had a follower named rick who would carry him around and throw him at bad guys. We also discovered that while followers couldn't have followers, vehicles and bases could have followers and followers could have vehicles... we came up with a string of bases and vehicles. In the end we had a character who could take out a deathstar on 375 points or less.

 

More recently I've been playing with the idea of giving a character "Desolidification usable against others, no end persistant" and a usable against desolid attack. Of course I would never play these characters, but sometimes it's fun to think of the possabilities. Does anyone else have some stories about this type of character, maybe one that someone actually played in a game.

[MitchellS]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

The rules for followers and based and vehicles don't work that way in 5E now. Each must be paid for separately.

 

As for your Desolid, UAA, 0 End, Persistent, that's a 120 active point attack. If you're going to let someone have that many active points you might as well give them a 24d6 eb or an 8d6 rka.

[input.jack]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

A friend of mine has a concept he refers to as "Atrocity Lad". He never -actually- names the character this, but thats how he refers to the archetype.

 

Hes built as a fairly innocuous looking flying speedster. High SPD, high DEX, and LOTS of flight.

 

...LOTS of flight.

 

Plus, he has the following little goodies hidden in his build.

 

"Personal Immunity" bought on his Strength. Seems OK; hes a kinetic manipulator, so he just channels the kinetic energy from his strikes in harmless ways thru his body.

 

"Personal Immunity" on his Flight. Same rationalization; if he impacts a building or something in mid-air, he doesnt take damage because he instinctively channels the kinetic energy of the blow.

 

1/2 Damage Reduction, and a fairly low PD. Its easier for him to channel kinetic energy he creates than it is incoming damage. Makes him seem fairly well defended in combat, not overly tough, and therefore playable.

 

Finally, he has LOTS of Levels with All Movement, built in as a slot in his EC. Hes naturally quick and agile, so he can turn on a dime, and things like that.

 

Now, for 99% of the game, Atrocity Lad seems like a perfectly ordinary flying speedster. No problems. He can get Stunned, or KO'ed, and so on.

 

So wheres the abuse?

 

My friend was running this character in a campaign where the Ref was...kind of heavy handed with his NPC's. He had a particular villain who was WAY off-scale, and liked to abuse characters (raped a female PC, things like that).

 

Atrocity Lad flew in, got a clear line on the guy...

 

And killed instantly him with a 100+ die NON COMBAT MOVE THROUGH. In one blow. All those velocity dice from his 40+' of Flight. His 10 All Movement levels gave him a 10 OCV for the attack; his base was 0, but the Levels applied. Personal Immunity to STR and Flight meant that even though the villain was vaporized, Atrocity Lad took NO damage from the Move Through.

 

The Ref was flabbergasted, the villain was disintegrated, the group haied my friend as the conquoring hero... and the game crashed as a result of the Ref's pet bad guy taking a dirt-nap.

 

Sneaky, well-justified, and effective. I was impressed!

[Publius]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

The Ref was flabbergasted' date=' the villain was disintegrated, the group haied my friend as the conquoring hero... and the game crashed as a result of the Ref's pet bad guy taking a dirt-nap.[/quote']This says loads about the GM, as well as the fact that he didn't see that one coming. I did with the personal immunities alone.

[sinanju]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

This says loads about the GM' date=' as well as the fact that he didn't see that one coming. I did with the personal immunities alone.[/quote']

 

Same here. But then, my gaming group saw something similiar once. We were playing GURPS Supers, which allows for 100% immunity (if you're willing to pay that much) to various sorts of effects. The GM had a tendency for his pet NPCs to get away.

 

One player created COPPERHEAD, who had an ungodly flight speed and Immunity to Collisions (or maybe to physical damage in general, I forget). Together, they made him the perfect anti-escape-vehicle weapon.

 

GM: "They're getting away in a helicopter!"

PC: "No they're NOT!" Zooooooooooooooom! SMASH!

GM:

PC: "Heh heh."

[prestidigitator]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

I've been thinking about Multiform, Usable Against Others. What do you think of that one? I could turn anyone into a toad for about 3 points. So it violates a Meta-Rule. Big deal....

[Hawksmoor]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Get it ranged.

 

Metarule schmetarule. Who plays by that book?

 

Hawksmoor

[prestidigitator]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Get it ranged.

 

Metarule schmetarule. Who plays by that book?

Yeah. I was going off a 1-point Multiform (the least expensive variety) with a few hefty Advantages on it.

[mattingly]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

For that matter, Simulate Death, Usable As Attack. Even more fun when it's a Damage Shield.

[Enamel]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

A friend of mine has a concept he refers to as "Strocity Lad". He never -actually- names the character this' date=' but thats how he refers to the archetype.[/quote']

I've been considerig the same basic idea for a character : Fallguy, who can choose which way gravity pulls and has his flight bought with No Hover (-1/4) and 75% Damage reduction vs blunt trauma on the side. Anyway, I was wondering what you all would consider a non-abusive build for this kind of thing? Is it just the addition of the Personal Immunity that's abusive or would you consider other factors?

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

When I was trying to convey just how ridiculous the Killing Attack game mechanic is to one guy who just didn't get it, I sketched out a high-Dex character "Bladestorm", with small, zero-Endurance autofire hand to hand killing attacks bought through focuses, with Rapid Autofire (hth) and levels versus Sweep penalties. The point being that if they were normal attacks, most 350 point characters would be immune to the attack (because it had so many advantages, the actual attack was trivial) even if they got hit a dozen times, but because of the Stun Lottery, Bladestorm was statistically likely to daze (aka "Con stun", or "Instantly Stun") just about anyone of an equivalent point value.

 

It was a monstrosity, but it got the point across.

 

I might make it up as a villain someday, though. We use flat x3 Stun Mods on our game group, so the Stun Lottery isn't an issue, which means I would have to increase the active point value of the attacks for Evil Bladestorm to be taken seriously.

[gewing]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

This says loads about the GM' date=' as well as the fact that he didn't see that one coming. I did with the personal immunities alone.[/quote']

 

 

I'm the guy whose gaming group said my characters needed a 25 pt bonus "Greg's Character" disad, over and above normal limits.

 

Even I saw that one coming...

 

WOW.

[gewing]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

IIRC I got shot down in mid session, the ref had seen the sheet, but wouldn't allow me to add strength to the HKA Pen attack.

 

I had a character Idea I couldn't figure out how to do, he was designed to destroy combat robots in the future, but got sent back in time. He was supposed to be DEVASTATING against robots and such, but normal supers were much more difficult.

 

Originally he was going to be a martial artist.

 

I tried to determine how to write up an EMP attack that was useful, freezing them so he could splat them.

 

Finally I realized that a form of brick would work better.

 

I was going to try to make something kind of like a lightsaber, 1/2 damage versus living tissues and such.

Ref didn't like it.

 

I decided to try "Find weakness" only versus non-living/engineered defenses. Finding a way to word it so it did what I wanted was difficult.

 

Never got a chance to play him, so... I let it slide.

 

just some random thoughts.

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

One of my favorite abusive one was a Multipower Energy Projector.

 

She didn't start out abusive, but she would always get into fights with bricks and always lose. The brick would just come up and eventually grab her, lights out.

 

So she got a new slot.

 

Next combat, the brick villian came up to her. "You know you're going down." He taunted her.

 

She gathered up her energy into a tight fist and KAPOW, decked the Brick. Brick was hit for 60 active points shifted in an ultra slot of pure HtoH Attack (back when it was 3 points per die), with 10 STR, that was 22D6 in otherwise 12D6 game.

 

"Ok, who NEXT?"

[Silbeg]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Finally I realized that a form of brick would work better.

 

I was going to try to make something kind of like a lightsaber, 1/2 damage versus living tissues and such.

Ref didn't like it.

 

I decided to try "Find weakness" only versus non-living/engineered defenses. Finding a way to word it so it did what I wanted was difficult.

 

Interesting idea... was trying to figure out a good way to do a "Bot killer" myself over the weekend... and never came up with a good one... (Maybe AP, only vs machines would be a good start... but...)

[Fox1]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Interesting idea... was trying to figure out a good way to do a "Bot killer" myself over the weekend... and never came up with a good one... (Maybe AP' date=' only vs machines would be a good start... but...)[/quote']

 

 

Ah, the old Magus the Robot Fighter character. Such fun.

 

 

Find Weakness with a high roll and the limit Only vs. robots/androids would work fine if you don't mind the requirement to take a few phases to 'examine' your foe. I think that's what makes it fun.

 

Otherwise I'd take resistant piercing from Dark Champions (remember your target is likely to only have 1/3 the normal rPD value, a little goes a long way), again with the the limit Only vs. robots/androids.

[atlascott]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Lots of shrinking, with high DEX, danger sense, 360 degree sight and maxxed CSL's, and main is NND attack. You COULD NOT hit this guy, and let's face it, how many heroes/villians have a bunch of AOE attacks? Not a whole lot, but he was the reason I started using them at all. And, of course, he could hurt almost anyone with his NND neutrino emitter (NND).

 

Or what about Mr. Big Knife----highest HKA you can buy with as many CLS's as allowed, and a RKA, same deal, highest DEX you can get, highest speed he could afford. Hit em hard, hit em fast. He can't stand up to a brick beating on him, but he doesn't need to--he hits any 4 color hero and they're dead.

 

HomeRun, the knockback brick. Damage resistance, standard brick, but buy as much increased knockback as possible so that every time you hit anyone, they go FLYING...so you never have to fight more than 1 guy at a time, esp if they dont have much in the way of movement powers...or even better, do the same with EB--add as much knockback as your GM will allow--and then watch to his horror as the villan needs to buy a bus ticket back to super city to continue the fight, after one blast...

[atlascott]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Or what about the purely support character. I get (at least) one any time I let supers run more than 1 PC per player. High Defense and END, but all he does is massive AID to the rest of the group, allowing them to circumvent the attack and defense limits......

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Atrocity Lad flew in, got a clear line on the guy...

 

And killed instantly him with a 100+ die NON COMBAT MOVE THROUGH. In one blow. All those velocity dice from his 40+' of Flight. His 10 All Movement levels gave him a 10 OCV for the attack; his base was 0, but the Levels applied. Personal Immunity to STR and Flight meant that even though the villain was vaporized, Atrocity Lad took NO damage from the Move Through.

 

The Ref was flabbergasted, the villain was disintegrated, the group haied my friend as the conquoring hero... and the game crashed as a result of the Ref's pet bad guy taking a dirt-nap.

 

Sneaky, well-justified, and effective. I was impressed!

 

this reminds me of a character i made called "carl", for iron age super heros. He was basically a "dark" version of the flash but his powers came from an incredibly over clocked mentabolism. He had all sorts of crazy things, that the GM knew about because he himself had built them for me, when i discribed them, like a 5d6 RKA that was him shooting bio-electric energy at people, and stuff

 

well his most powerful attack was an 8d6 HKA move through where he runs into someone at 80bajillion kph, which would kill him because his defenses didn't apply to it, luckally due to his increased metabolism (and the fact they were really powerful chars (700pts)), he had a good regeneration.

 

So the finally battle comes down to My speedster vs, Ripper, basically super powerful jack the ripper with lots of levels of combat brutality. The battle was just us circling, because if attacked him, he wouldn't go down and i couldn't abort to desolid "ie. i'm too fast to hit" and one hit from him would probably kill me, then he could kill my unconcious friends. So we just circled holding actions until my roommate (who doesn't play HERO) walks in on us.

 

GM: "it's a mexican standoff, if either of you moves, the other gets to attack and you won't attack first becuase you'll die, and he won't attack because you'll abort to desolid"

Me: "Does tactics help me any in situation?"

GM: "Not really, because I can't think of any way to solve this problem"

Roomate: "wait, this is only a stand off so long as he has hands?"

Me: "ok, i'll called shot to the hands with my suicide attack"

 

a few lucky rolls later, ripper has stumps for hands and i'm dead. He can't use his knife so he doesn't have a way to really hurt us, and has 36 seconds before i resurrect using my regeneration

 

He finally gets the knife in his teeth and starts to drain the soul of another villain, when i wake up and punch him out

 

win one for the speedster

[mattingly]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

One other concept that can be easily abused in a game, but happens often enough in comics is the Desolid Guy. His attacks are bought with Affects Physical World, but since that's such an expensive Advantage, the Advantage Stacking kicks in.

 

80 -- Desolid, 0 END, Persistent

 

This high cost power allows all the other powers to be Linked to it at the full -1/2 value, saving dozens of points.

 

Now, to stack the attacks.

 

50 -- Multipower, 75-point Reserve, Linked to Desolid

4u -- 1) HA +3d6, ARW (+2), NND (+1), Does BODY (+1); Hand Attack (-1/2), Linked (-1/2)

** -- Other tricks

 

See, since you're already spending a +2 on Advantages, and could get at most a 5d6 power, it's a lot more effective to drop the dice and pile on more Advantages.

 

To be truly horrendous, buy Martial Arts. Since the HA adds to Base Damage (and there's no point having higher than a 15 STR in this guy's case, since otherwise the STR would prorate at a ridiculously small ratio), the character could add another 6d6 from Maneuvers. Like, say, a Pushed Offensive Strike, or a High Speed Passing Strike.

 

How's that for a way to get a 12d6 NND attack while remaining invulnerable?

[pinecone]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Yeah my version of the "Ghost ninja" was just buying Affects real world on his STR then buying up the DC's the old "Intangible choke hold" trick....

[Silbeg]

Re: Deliberatly Abusive Character concepts

 

Ah, the old Magus the Robot Fighter character. Such fun.

 

 

Find Weakness with a high roll and the limit Only vs. robots/androids would work fine if you don't mind the requirement to take a few phases to 'examine' your foe. I think that's what makes it fun.

 

Otherwise I'd take resistant piercing from Dark Champions (remember your target is likely to only have 1/3 the normal rPD value, a little goes a long way), again with the the limit Only vs. robots/androids.

 

That is a pretty good idea. Probably better that the dispel-type effects I was looking at, as well...

 

When working on the concept, I punted, and changed my "bot killers" to "bot reprogrammers" - and gave then a cumulative, cone AE Mind Control (machine minds)... slowly, but surely, they would take over!